Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2024-40637

CVE-2024-40637:
Python vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

CVE-2024-40637 affects dbt (data build tool), a software that enables data analysts and engineers to transform data. The vulnerability was discovered in early 2024 and disclosed on July 16, 2024. When a user installs a package in dbt, it has the ability to override macros, materializations, and other core components. While this feature is designed to allow packages to extend and customize dbt's functionality, it also creates a potential security risk where a malicious package could override these components with harmful code (GitHub Advisory).

Technical details

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.2 (Medium) by GitHub, with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L. However, NIST has assessed it with a higher CVSS score of 7.8 (High) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The vulnerability allows malicious packages to execute SQL injection attacks without user interaction, potentially leading to data manipulation or exfiltration (Equal Experts).

Impact

The vulnerability could allow attackers to manipulate or delete data, leading to data integrity issues, and potentially exfiltrate sensitive information from the database. In specific scenarios, such as with Google BigQuery, an attacker could craft a package that copies data to a public dataset without immediate detection (Tempered Works).

Mitigation and workarounds

The issue has been fixed in versions 1.8.0, 1.6.14, and 1.7.14. Users updating to either 1.6.14 or 1.7.14 need to set flags.require_explicit_package_overrides_for_builtin_materializations: False in their configuration in dbt_project.yml. Additional recommended mitigations include: downloading packages only from trusted maintainers, creating a review process for introducing packages, running packages in development environments without production data access, and limiting dbt user permissions to the minimum necessary (GitHub Advisory).

Community reactions

The vulnerability disclosure has sparked discussions in the data engineering community about the security implications of using dbt packages. Security experts have noted that while the vulnerability itself is significant, the real security concerns lie in the underlying data warehouse permissions and policies. The incident has led to broader conversations about balancing security with usability in data platforms (Elementary Data).