CVE-2024-28189

Deeper analysis

Judge0 is an open-source online code execution system that runs untrusted code inside an isolated sandbox. The vulnerability exists in the isolate_job component, which invokes the UNIX chown command directly on a file path supplied by user code without first resolving or validating symbolic links. This allows an attacker to supply a symlink that points outside the sandbox, causing chown to operate on arbitrary files on the host filesystem. The issue is tracked as CWE-59 and CWE-61 and was assigned a CVSS score of 10.0.

An unauthenticated remote attacker who can submit code to a Judge0 instance can create the malicious symlink and thereby change ownership of files outside the sandbox. Although the flaw has limited direct impact, it can be chained with the earlier CVE-2024-28185 to fully escape the sandbox and obtain arbitrary code execution on the host. Exploitation requires no special privileges or user interaction.

The vulnerability is fixed in Judge0 version 1.13.1. The project’s security advisories GHSA-3xpw-36v7-2cmg and GHSA-h9g2-45c8-89cf, along with the corresponding commit, describe the symlink-handling flaw and confirm that the chown operation was updated to prevent traversal outside the sandbox. The EPSS score has remained at 0.5758 with no material increase since disclosure.