Ebuild For SlurmApplication · Gentoo

CVE-2020-36770

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-01-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 22.05.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
pkg_postinst in the Gentoo ebuild for Slurm through 22.05.3 unnecessarily calls chown to assign root's ownership on files in the live root filesystem. This could be exploited by the slurm user to become the owner of root-owned files.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-732

A sensitive file, directory, or resource is created with permissions more open than it needs, so unintended users can read or modify it. Attackers look for exactly these loose defaults. Remediation is assigning the minimum permissions required and verifying them at install time and at runtime.

General guidance for the incorrect permission assignment class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Ebuild For SlurmApplication
Affected:<= 22.05.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 22.05.3
Vendor patch bugs.gentoo.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Gentoo fixed version (check bugs.gentoo.org/631552 for the specific patched release > 22.05.3)

  1. Check the Gentoo bug tracker at https://bugs.gentoo.org/631552 for the patched version of the Slurm ebuild
  2. Locate and review the pkg_postinst function in the affected Slurm ebuild version (<=22.05.3)
  3. Identify the specific chown command that incorrectly operates on the live root filesystem
  4. Apply the vendor patch from Gentoo bug #631552 which removes or corrects the improper chown call
  5. Re-emerge the Slurm ebuild after applying the patch
  6. Verify the pkg_postinst no longer performs unnecessary chown operations on root filesystem files
  7. Ensure the slurm user cannot gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $2,300. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-36770 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-36770 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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