Summary
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service that enables customers to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications. An issue exists where, under certain circumstances, improper input validation in the FSx Windows File Server volume mounting process allows command injection through specially crafted credentials.
Workarounds
Customers who cannot update to the latest AMI can restrict ecs:RegisterTaskDefinition permissions to trusted IAM principals only and restrict write access to Secrets Manager secrets referenced in FSx volume configurations.
References
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, Amazon ECS asks that users contact [AWS/Amazon] Security via vulnerability reporting page or directly via email to [email protected]. Please do not create a public GitHub issue.
Acknowledgement
Amazon ECS would like to thank Sachin Patil for collaborating on this issue through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.
Impact
Improper neutralization of inputs used in an OS command in the FSx Windows File Server volume mounting component in Amazon ECS Agent on Windows before 1.103.0 might allow a remote authenticated threat actor to execute shell commands with SYSTEM privileges on the underlying host via a specially crafted username field in an ECS task definition. This issue requires permissions to register ECS task definitions or write to the Secrets Manager or SSM Parameter Store credentials used by the FSx volume configuration.
To remediate this issue, users should upgrade to version 1.103.0.
Impacted versions: Version 1.47.0 through 1.102.2 of the ECS Agent for Windows
Untrusted input reaches a shell command, allowing arbitrary commands to run on the host. Typical impact: code execution in the application's environment.
GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (High). The vector is network-reachable, high 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 (1.103.0); 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.
Remediation advice
This issue only impacts ECS Windows worker instances. ECS on Fargate is not affected. This issue has been addressed in ECS agent version 1.103.0. Amazon ECS recommends upgrading to the latest Amazon ECS-optimized Windows AMI with an updated ECS agent version.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653? GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 is a high-severity OS command injection vulnerability in github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agent (go), affecting versions >= 1.47.0, <= 1.102.2. It is fixed in 1.103.0. Untrusted input reaches a shell command, allowing arbitrary commands to run on the host.
- How severe is GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653? GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 has a CVSS score of 7.2 (High). 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 github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agent are affected by GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653? github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agent (go) versions >= 1.47.0, <= 1.102.2 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653? Yes. GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 is fixed in 1.103.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 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 GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653 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 GHSA-FC67-C4HG-Q653? Upgrade
github.com/aws/amazon-ecs-agentto 1.103.0 or later.