What is CVE-2023-32629?

CVE-2023-32629 is a high-severity local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the OverlayFS implementation in Canonical Ubuntu Linux 23.04. Discovered by Shir Tamari and Sagi Tzadik, this vulnerability allows a local attacker to potentially gain elevated privileges by exploiting improper permission checks. Systems running Ubuntu Linux 23.04, including various cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), are among the types of systems impacted by this vulnerability.

Who is impacted by CVE-2023-32629?

Local attackers could exploit this local privilege escalation vulnerability to gain elevated privileges. Other affected versions include Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 ESM, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 14.04 ESM. Additionally, Linux kernel packages such as linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-ibm, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-oracle, and linux-raspi are also impacted by this vulnerability.

What should I do if I’m affected?

If you're affected by the CVE-2023-32629 vulnerability, it's crucial to take action to protect your system. To mitigate the risk, follow these simple steps:

1. Update your kernel livepatch to the specified version for your Ubuntu release, as mentioned in the Kernel Live Patch Security Notice.

2. Apply security patches provided by Canonical Ltd., as suggested on the CVE-2023-32629 page.

3. Update the affected software to the latest version.

4. Reboot your computer after updating, as advised in the USN-6250-1 notice.

Is this in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog?

The CVE-2023-32629 vulnerability is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog. This local privilege escalation vulnerability in Ubuntu Kernels overlayfs allows attackers to potentially gain elevated privileges due to improper permission checks. To mitigate the risk, users should update their kernel livepatch, apply security patches, update affected software, and reboot their computer after updating.

Weakness Enumeration

The weakness enumeration for this vulnerability is categorized as CWE-863, which refers to incorrect authorization issues in the OverlayFS implementation of Canonical Ubuntu Linux 23.04.

Learn More

For a comprehensive understanding of its description, severity, technical details, and known affected software configurations, refer to the NVD page or the sources listed below:

• Kernel Live Patch Security Notice LSN-0097-1

• CVE - CVE-2023-32629

• SRU Focal 1/1: ovl: adhere to the vfs\_ vs. ovl\do\ conventions for xattrs

• USN-6250-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities