CVE-2020-15157 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2020-15157
Vulnerability Scoring

6.1
/10
High Risk

If left unpatched, CVE-2020-15157 could lead to major system disruptions or data loss.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: High
    Exploits require significant effort and special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Network
    Vulnerability is exploitable over a network without physical access.
  • Privileges Required: None
    No privileges are required for exploitation.
  • Scope: Changed
    Successful exploitation can impact components beyond the vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: Required
    User interaction is necessary for successful exploitation.

CVE-2020-15157 Details

Status: Analyzed

Last updated: 🕓 18 Nov 2021, 16:16 UTC
Originally published on: 🕔 16 Oct 2020, 17:15 UTC

Time between publication and last update: 397 days

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

nvd@nist.gov

CVSS3 Type

Primary

CVSS3 Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVE-2020-15157 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2020-15157: In containerd (an industry-standard container runtime) before version 1.2.14 there is a credential leaking vulnerability. If a container image manifest in the OCI Image format or Docker Image V2 Schema 2 format includes a URL for the location of a specific image layer (otherwise known as a “foreign layer”), the default containerd resolver will follow that URL to attempt to download it. In v1.2.x but not 1.3.0 or later, the default containerd resolver will provide its authentication credentials if the server where the URL is located presents an HTTP 401 status code along with registry-specific HTTP headers. If an attacker publishes a public image with a manifest that directs one of the layers to be fetched from a web server they control and they trick a user or system into pulling the image, they can obtain the credentials used for pulling that image. In some cases, this may be the user's username and password for the registry. In other cases, this may be the credentials attached to the cloud virtual instance which can grant access to other cloud resources in the account. The default containerd resolver is used by the cri-containerd plugin (which can be used by Kubernetes), the ctr development tool, and other client programs that have explicitly linked against it. This vulnerability has been fixed in containerd 1.2.14. containerd 1.3 and later are not affected. If you are using containerd 1.3 or later, you are not affected. If you are using cri-containerd in the 1.2 series or prior, you should ensure you only pull images from trusted sources. Other container runtimes built on top of containerd but not using the default resolver (such as Docker) are not affected.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2020-15157

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2020-15157 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2020-15157

CVE-2020-15157 presents a challenge to exploit due to its high attack complexity, but the absence of privilege requirements still makes it a viable target for skilled attackers. A thorough security review is advised.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2020-15157, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2020-15157, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: High
    Exploiting CVE-2020-15157 can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, severely compromising data privacy.
  • Integrity: None
    CVE-2020-15157 poses no threat to data integrity.
  • Availability: None
    CVE-2020-15157 does not impact system availability.

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.

EPSS Score: 0.303% (probability of exploit)

EPSS Percentile: 69.86% (lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 30.14% of others.

CVE-2020-15157 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-522

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Session Sidejacking CAPEC-102 Session sidejacking takes advantage of an unencrypted communication channel between a victim and target system. The attacker sniffs traffic on a network looking for session tokens in unencrypted traffic. Once a session token is captured, the attacker performs malicious actions by using the stolen token with the targeted application to impersonate the victim. This attack is a specific method of session hijacking, which is exploiting a valid session token to gain unauthorized access to a target system or information. Other methods to perform a session hijacking are session fixation, cross-site scripting, or compromising a user or server machine and stealing the session token.
  • Signature Spoofing by Key Theft CAPEC-474 An attacker obtains an authoritative or reputable signer's private signature key by theft and then uses this key to forge signatures from the original signer to mislead a victim into performing actions that benefit the attacker.
  • Password Recovery Exploitation CAPEC-50 An attacker may take advantage of the application feature to help users recover their forgotten passwords in order to gain access into the system with the same privileges as the original user. Generally password recovery schemes tend to be weak and insecure.
  • Kerberoasting CAPEC-509 Through the exploitation of how service accounts leverage Kerberos authentication with Service Principal Names (SPNs), the adversary obtains and subsequently cracks the hashed credentials of a service account target to exploit its privileges. The Kerberos authentication protocol centers around a ticketing system which is used to request/grant access to services and to then access the requested services. As an authenticated user, the adversary may request Active Directory and obtain a service ticket with portions encrypted via RC4 with the private key of the authenticated account. By extracting the local ticket and saving it disk, the adversary can brute force the hashed value to reveal the target account credentials.
  • Modify Existing Service CAPEC-551 When an operating system starts, it also starts programs called services or daemons. Modifying existing services may break existing services or may enable services that are disabled/not commonly used.
  • Remote Services with Stolen Credentials CAPEC-555 This pattern of attack involves an adversary that uses stolen credentials to leverage remote services such as RDP, telnet, SSH, and VNC to log into a system. Once access is gained, any number of malicious activities could be performed.
  • Use of Known Domain Credentials CAPEC-560 An adversary guesses or obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate credentials (e.g. userID/password) to achieve authentication and to perform authorized actions under the guise of an authenticated user or service.
  • Windows Admin Shares with Stolen Credentials CAPEC-561 An adversary guesses or obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate Windows administrator credentials (e.g. userID/password) to access Windows Admin Shares on a local machine or within a Windows domain.
  • Credential Stuffing CAPEC-600 An adversary tries known username/password combinations against different systems, applications, or services to gain additional authenticated access. Credential Stuffing attacks rely upon the fact that many users leverage the same username/password combination for multiple systems, applications, and services.
  • Use of Captured Hashes (Pass The Hash) CAPEC-644 An adversary obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate Windows domain credential hash values to access systems within the domain that leverage the Lan Man (LM) and/or NT Lan Man (NTLM) authentication protocols.
  • Use of Captured Tickets (Pass The Ticket) CAPEC-645 An adversary uses stolen Kerberos tickets to access systems/resources that leverage the Kerberos authentication protocol. The Kerberos authentication protocol centers around a ticketing system which is used to request/grant access to services and to then access the requested services. An adversary can obtain any one of these tickets (e.g. Service Ticket, Ticket Granting Ticket, Silver Ticket, or Golden Ticket) to authenticate to a system/resource without needing the account's credentials. Depending on the ticket obtained, the adversary may be able to access a particular resource or generate TGTs for any account within an Active Directory Domain.
  • Use of Known Kerberos Credentials CAPEC-652 An adversary obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate Kerberos credentials (e.g. Kerberos service account userID/password or Kerberos Tickets) with the goal of achieving authenticated access to additional systems, applications, or services within the domain.
  • Use of Known Operating System Credentials CAPEC-653 An adversary guesses or obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate operating system credentials (e.g. userID/password) to achieve authentication and to perform authorized actions on the system, under the guise of an authenticated user or service. This applies to any Operating System.

Vulnerable Configurations

  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta0:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta0:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.1:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.1:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.13:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.2.13:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta0:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta0:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:containerd:1.3.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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