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Link Following (Symlink)Weakness · CWE-59

CVE-2024-28189

CRITICAL · 10.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-04-18
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Judge0 is an open-source online code execution system. The application uses the UNIX chown command on an untrusted file within the sandbox. An attacker can abuse this by creating a symbolic link (symlink) to a file outside the sandbox, allowing the attacker to run chown on arbitrary files outside of the sandbox. This vulnerability is not impactful on it's own, but it can be used to bypass the patch for CVE-2024-28185 and obtain a complete sandbox escape. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.13.1.

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 · high confidence

Judge0 runs the UNIX chown command on an untrusted file within its sandbox without proper validation. An attacker can create a symbolic link pointing outside the sandbox, causing chown to modify ownership of arbitrary files outside the sandbox boundaries. While limited on its own, this vulnerability enables bypassing the fix for CVE-2024-28185 to achieve a complete sandbox escape.

MitigationUpgrade Judge0 to version 1.13.1 or later to obtain the security patch.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if Judge0 is installed
    Check for Judge0 processes running (e.g., ps aux | grep -i judge0) or look for Judge0 installation directories (commonly /opt/judge0, /home/*/judge0, or via Docker containers named judge0*)
    Affected if Judge0 is found running in the environment
  2. Determine installed Judge0 version
    Check the version string - common methods: cat /opt/judge0/VERSION, docker images (if containerized), or query the Judge0 API endpoint /about if accessible
    Affected if Version is present and less than 1.13.1 (vulnerable); version 1.13.1 or later is patched
  3. Verify the sandbox processes untrusted user files
    Review Judge0 configuration and submission processing - the vulnerability triggers when Judge0 processes code submissions that create files within its sandbox environment
    Affected if Judge0 is configured to accept and execute untrusted code submissions (standard sandbox operation)
  4. Check for symbolic link handling in sandbox
    Inspect Judge0 source code or configuration files related to file operations, particularly chown execution on submission files - look for code handling file ownership changes within sandbox submissions
    Affected if The chown operation on submission files is not validated for symlinks (vulnerable code path exists)

The environment is affected if Judge0 is running with a version lower than 1.13.1 and accepts untrusted code submissions that trigger the chown operation on files within the sandbox.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Judge0 to version 1.13.1 or later to obtain the security patch.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.13.1

  1. Locate the judge0 deployment in your environment
  2. Backup your current judge0 configuration and data
  3. Pull or fetch the updated judge0 version 1.13.1 from the official repository
  4. Verify the commit hash f3b8547b3b67863e4ea0ded3adcb963add56addd is included in the update
  5. Stop the running judge0 service
  6. Deploy version 1.13.1
  7. Verify the service starts successfully and the symlink vulnerability is patched
  8. Test that the sandbox properly prevents chown operations on files outside the sandbox

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the patch applied

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

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-2024-28189 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data