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CVE-2021-21303

MEDIUM
Published 2021-02-05T21:40:14
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CVSS Score

V3.1
5.9
/10
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
Base Score Metrics
Exploitability: N/A Impact: N/A

EPSS Score

v2025.03.14
0.002
probability
of exploitation in the wild

There is a 0.2% chance that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.

Updated: 2025-06-25
Exploit Probability
Percentile: 0.387
Higher than 38.7% of all CVEs

Attack Vector Metrics

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
CHANGED

Impact Metrics

Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE

Description

Helm is open-source software which is essentially "The Kubernetes Package Manager". Helm is a tool for managing Charts. Charts are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. In Helm from version 3.0 and before version 3.5.2, there a few cases where data loaded from potentially untrusted sources was not properly sanitized. When a SemVer in the `version` field of a chart is invalid, in some cases Helm allows the string to be used "as is" without sanitizing. Helm fails to properly sanitized some fields present on Helm repository `index.yaml` files. Helm does not properly sanitized some fields in the `plugin.yaml` file for plugins In some cases, Helm does not properly sanitize the fields in the `Chart.yaml` file. By exploiting these attack vectors, core maintainers were able to send deceptive information to a terminal screen running the `helm` command, as well as obscure or alter information on the screen. In some cases, we could send codes that terminals used to execute higher-order logic, like clearing a terminal screen. Further, during evaluation, the Helm maintainers discovered a few other fields that were not properly sanitized when read out of repository index files. This fix remedies all such cases, and once again enforces SemVer2 policies on version fields. All users of the Helm 3 should upgrade to the fixed version 3.5.2 or later. Those who use Helm as a library should verify that they either sanitize this data on their own, or use the proper Helm API calls to sanitize the data.

Available Exploits

No exploits available for this CVE.

Related News

No news articles found for this CVE.

Affected Products

GitHub Security Advisories

Community-driven vulnerability intelligence from GitHub

✓ GitHub Reviewed MODERATE

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output in helm.sh/helm/v3

GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx

Advisory Details

Since Helm 2 was released, a well-documented aspect of Helm is that the Helm chart's version number MUST follow the SemVer2 specification. In the past, Helm would not permit charts with malformed versions. At some point, a patch was merged that changed this - On a version parse error, the version number was simply passed along as-is. This provided a vector for malicious data to be injected into Helm and potentially used in various ways. Core maintainers were able to send deceptive information to a terminal screen running the `helm` command, as well as obscure or alter information on the screen. In some cases, we could send codes that terminals used to execute higher-order logic, like clearing a terminal screen. Further, during evaluation, the Helm maintainers discovered a few other fields that were not properly sanitized when read out of repository index files. This fix remedies all such cases, and once again enforces SemVer2 policies on version fields. All users of the Helm 3 should upgrade. Those who use Helm as a library should verify that they either sanitize this data on their own, or use the proper Helm API calls to sanitize the data. ### Patches This issue has been resolved in Helm 3.5.2. While this fix does not constitute a breaking change, as all field formatting is now enforced as documented, it is possible that charts that were mistakenly allowed (but invalid) may no longer be available in search indexes. Specifically, **malformed SemVer versions are no longer supported**. This has always been the documented case, but it is true that malformed versions were allowed. Note that this is the first security release since Helm 2's final deprecation. Helm 2 was not audited for vulnerability to this issue, and should be assumed vulnerable.

Affected Packages

Go helm.sh/helm/v3
ECOSYSTEM: ≥3.0.0 <3.5.2

CVSS Scoring

CVSS Score

5.0

CVSS Vector

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

Advisory provided by GitHub Security Advisory Database. Published: June 23, 2021, Modified: May 31, 2024

References

Published: 2021-02-05T21:40:14
Last Modified: 2024-08-03T18:09:15.134Z
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