[oss-security] PolicyKit: CVE-2018-19788: Improper handling of user with uid > INT_MAX leading to authentication bypass

[Salvatore Bonaccorso]

Hi

In https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/74 (which got
assigned CVE-2018-19788 by MITRE) it was reported that a user with uid

INT_MAX could successfully execute any systemctl command (but the

issue is broader than that).

There is a proposed commit: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/zbyszek/polkit/commit/fbaab32cb4ed9ed5f1e3eea6cd317d443aa427dc

From fbaab32cb4ed9ed5f1e3eea6cd317d443aa427dc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2018 12:51:26 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Check gid and uid initalization in PolkitUnixUser and Group
objects
When a user or group above INT32_MAX is created, the numeric uid or
gid wraps around to negative when the value is assigned to gint, and
polkit gets confused. Let's refuse such uids and gids.
This patch just refuses to initialize uid and gid values to negative.
A nicer fix is to change the underlying type to e.g. gint64 to allow
the full range of values in uid_t and gid_t to be represented. But
this cannot be done without breaking the API, so likely new functions
will have to be added (a polkit_unix_user_new variant that takes a
gint64, and the same for _group_new, _set_uid, _get_uid, _set_gid,
_get_gid, etc.). This will require a bigger patch.
Fixes https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/issues/74.
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: system-bus-name::1.41869 is inquiring whether system-bus-name::1.79432 is authorized for org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: user of caller is unix-user:root
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_unix_user_new: assertion 'uid >= 0' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_identity_to_string: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_IDENTITY (identity)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: user of subject is (null)
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_identity_equal: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_IDENTITY (b)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: checking whether system-bus-name::1.79432 is authorized for org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_unix_user_new: assertion 'uid >= 0' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_authorization_result_get_is_challenge: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_AUTHORIZATION_RESULT (result)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_authorization_result_get_details: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_AUTHORIZATION_RESULT (result)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_authorization_result_get_is_challenge: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_AUTHORIZATION_RESULT (result)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: polkit_authorization_result_get_is_authorized: assertion 'POLKIT_IS_AUTHORIZATION_RESULT (result)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Dec 03 14:35:08 krowka polkitd[21432]: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

Regards,
Salvatore