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CVE-2022-21658


Rust is a multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language designed for performance and safety, especially safe concurrency. The Rust Security Response WG was notified that the `std::fs::remove_dir_all` standard library function is vulnerable a race condition enabling symlink following (CWE-363). An attacker could use this security issue to trick a privileged program into deleting files and directories the attacker couldn't otherwise access or delete. Rust 1.0.0 through Rust 1.58.0 is affected by this vulnerability with 1.58.1 containing a patch. Note that the following build targets don't have usable APIs to properly mitigate the attack, and are thus still vulnerable even with a patched toolchain: macOS before version 10.10 (Yosemite) and REDOX. We recommend everyone to update to Rust 1.58.1 as soon as possible, especially people developing programs expected to run in privileged contexts (including system daemons and setuid binaries), as those have the highest risk of being affected by this. Note that adding checks in your codebase before calling remove_dir_all will not mitigate the vulnerability, as they would also be vulnerable to race conditions like remove_dir_all itself. The existing mitigation is working as intended outside of race conditions.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.3, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts limited integrity, and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 7 products from rust-lang, from fedoraproject, from apple and 4 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2022, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2022-01-20T18:15:07.703

Last Modified

2024-11-21T06:45:10.343

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.3 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: NONE
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

3.4

Impact Score

4.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-363
    CWE-367
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-367

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application rust-lang rust ≤ 1.58.0 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 34 Yes
Operating System fedoraproject fedora 35 Yes
Operating System apple ipados < 15.4 Yes
Operating System apple iphone_os < 15.4 Yes
Operating System apple macos < 12.3 Yes
Operating System apple tvos < 15.4 Yes
Operating System apple watchos < 8.5 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For rust-lang's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.