GRUB2 Auth Bypass via Duplicate UUID on UEFI
CVE-2023-4001 Published on January 15, 2024
Grub2: bypass the grub password protection feature
An authentication bypass flaw was found in GRUB due to the way that GRUB uses the UUID of a device to search for the configuration file that contains the password hash for the GRUB password protection feature. An attacker capable of attaching an external drive such as a USB stick containing a file system with a duplicate UUID (the same as in the "/boot/" file system) can bypass the GRUB password protection feature on UEFI systems, which enumerate removable drives before non-removable ones. This issue was introduced in a downstream patch in Red Hat's version of grub2 and does not affect the upstream package.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2023-4001 can be exploited with physical access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public. 169 days later.
Weakness Type
Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
This attack-focused weakness is caused by improperly implemented authentication schemes that are subject to spoofing attacks.
Products Associated with CVE-2023-4001
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Affected Versions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:- Version 1:2.06-70.el9_3.2 and below * is unaffected.
- Version 1:2.06-27.el9_0.16 and below * is unaffected.
- Version 1:2.06-61.el9_2.2 and below * is unaffected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.