CkanApplication · Okfn

CVE-2023-32696

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.9.9 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
CKAN is an open-source data management system for powering data hubs and data portals. Prior to versions 2.9.9 and 2.10.1, the `ckan` user (equivalent to www-data) owned code and configuration files in the docker container and the `ckan` user had the permissions to use sudo. These issues allowed for code execution or privilege escalation if an arbitrary file write bug was available. Versions 2.9.9, 2.9.9-dev, 2.10.1, and 2.10.1-dev contain a patch.

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-269

Privileges are granted, or fail to be dropped, incorrectly, so an action runs with more power than it should. An attacker who reaches that path inherits the excess privilege. The fix is least-privilege throughout, with explicit, checked transitions whenever privilege changes.

General guidance for the improper privilege management 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
CkanApplication
Affected:< 2.9.9= 2.10.0

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 2.9.9 or later
Fixed in 2.9.9
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

CKAN 2.9.9 or 2.10.1 (or later)

  1. 1. Backup your current CKAN installation and any persistent data/volumes
  2. 2. If using ckan-docker-base, update your Dockerfile or docker-compose.yml to use a base image with the patched version
  3. 3. Verify the new image tag references version 2.9.9, 2.9.9-dev, 2.10.1, or 2.10.1-dev (or later)
  4. 4. Rebuild your CKAN containers with the updated image
  5. 5. Ensure the ckan user no longer owns application code and configuration files in the container
  6. 6. Verify the ckan user does not have sudo privileges in the container
  7. 7. Test that CKAN functionality remains operational after the upgrade
Caveat Review CKAN 2.10.x release notes for any breaking changes between your current version and the target version

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2023-32696 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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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