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GHSA-vxmw-7h4f-hqxh json

PyPI publish GitHub Action vulnerable to injectable expression expansions in action steps

published last yr. modified last yr.

cvss
0.0
version 3.1, GitHub
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
—
no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

### Summary

`gh-action-pypi-publish` makes use of GitHub Actions expression expansions (i.e. `${{ ... }}`) in contexts that are potentially attacker controllable. Depending on the trigger used to invoke `gh-action-pypi-publish`, this may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code within the context of a workflow step that invokes `gh-action-pypi-publish`.

### Details

`gh-action-pypi-publish` contains a composite action step, `set-repo-and-ref`, that makes use of expression expansions:

```yaml - name: Set repo and ref from which to run Docker container action id: set-repo-and-ref run: | # Set repo and ref from which to run Docker container action # to handle cases in which `github.action_` context is not set # https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/2473 REF=${{ env.ACTION_REF || env.PR_REF || github.ref_name }} REPO=${{ env.ACTION_REPO || env.PR_REPO || github.repository }} REPO_ID=${{ env.PR_REPO_ID || github.repository_id }} echo "ref=$REF" >>"$GITHUB_OUTPUT" echo "repo=$REPO" >>"$GITHUB_OUTPUT" echo "repo-id=$REPO_ID" >>"$GITHUB_OUTPUT" shell: bash env: ACTION_REF: ${{ github.action_ref }} ACTION_REPO: ${{ github.action_repository }} PR_REF: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref }} PR_REPO: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name }} PR_REPO_ID: ${{ github.event.pull_request.base.repo.id }} ```

Permalink: https://github.com/pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish/blob/db8f07d3871a0a180efa06b95d467625c19d5d5f/action.yml#L114-L125

In normal intended operation, these expansions are used to establish a correct priority for outputs like `ref` and `repo-id`.

However, these expansions have a side effect: because they're done with `${{ ... }}` and not with `${...}` (i.e. normal shell interpolation), they can *bypass normal shell quoting rules*. In particular, if both `env.ACTION_REF` and `env.PR_REF` evaluate to empty strings, then the expression falls back to `github.ref_name`, which can be an attacker controlled string via a branch or tag name.

For example, if the attacker is able to set a branch name to something like `innocent;cat${IFS}/etc/passwd`, then the `REF` line may expand as:

```bash REF=innocent;cat${IFS}/etc/passwd ```

which would set `REF` to `innocent` and then run the attacker's code.

Additional information about dangerous expansions can be found in [zizmor's `template-injection` rule documentation](https://woodruffw.github.io/zizmor/audits/#template-injection).

### Impact

The impact of this vulnerability is very low: the expression in question is unlikely to be evaluated in normal operation, since `env.ACTION_REF` should always take precedence.

In particular, the action is **not** vulnerable in many popular configurations, i.e. those where `pull_request` or `release` or a `push: tags` event is used to call the action.

Patch / fix

  • github-actions pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish 1.13.0

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CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
GitHub 3.1 0.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
github-actions pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish
<1.13.0
1.13.0

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-77 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command

References

Sources

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