Summary
Path traversal in Onionshare
Between September 26, 2021 and October 8, 2021, Radically Open Security conducted a penetration test of OnionShare 2.4, funded by the Open Technology Fund's Red Team lab. This is an issue from that penetration test.
- Vulnerability ID: OTF-013
- Vulnerability type: Improper Hardening
- Threat level: Low
Description:
The filesystem restriction could be hardened and should only allow for pre-defined subfolders.
Technical description:
The Flatpak and Snap configurations allow for read-only access on the whole home folder. The relevant lines in the configuration files are onionshare/snap/snapcraft.yaml#L20 and onionshare/flatpak/org.onionshare.OnionShare.yaml#L19 , respectively.
The encapsulation of filesystem access via these mechanisms should be restricted to pre-defined folders and not allow for access to (configuration) files outside the Onionshare-specific folders.
Sadly Snap does not allow for further restriction to specific folders and therefore cannot be further hardened. By default both frameworks disallow access to hidden folders and therefore reduce the potential impact.
Impact
An adversary with a primitive that allows for filesystem access from the context of the Onionshare process can access sensitive files in the entire user home folder. This could lead to the leaking of sensitive data. Due to the automatic exclusion of hidden folders, the impact is reduced.
Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files. Typical impact: unauthorized file read or write outside the intended directory.
CVE-2022-21693 has a CVSS score of 6.3 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.5); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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See it in your environmentNew to Kodem? Get a demo →Remediation advice
- Reduce read access in Flatpak configuration.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-21693? CVE-2022-21693 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in onionshare-cli (pip), affecting versions >= 2.3, < 2.5. It is fixed in 2.5. Input manipulates file paths to reach files outside the intended directory, such as configuration or credential files.
- How severe is CVE-2022-21693? CVE-2022-21693 has a CVSS score of 6.3 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of onionshare-cli are affected by CVE-2022-21693? onionshare-cli (pip) versions >= 2.3, < 2.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-21693? Yes. CVE-2022-21693 is fixed in 2.5. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-21693 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-21693 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-21693 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-21693? Upgrade
onionshare-clito 2.5 or later.