CVE-2023-37274

Path traversal vulnerability in Auto-GPT

• CVSS 7.8
• CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
• Input Validation and Sanitization
• Remote

Auto-GPT is an experimental open-source application showcasing the capabilities of the GPT-4 language model. When Auto-GPT is executed directly on the host system via the provided run.sh or run.bat files, custom Python code execution is sandboxed using a temporary dedicated docker container which should not have access to any files outside of the Auto-GPT workspace directory. Before v0.4.3, the `execute_python_code` command (introduced in v0.4.1) does not sanitize the `basename` arg before writing LLM-supplied code to a file with an LLM-supplied name. This allows for a path traversal attack that can overwrite any .py file outside the workspace directory by specifying a `basename` such as `../../../main.py`. This can further be abused to achieve arbitrary code execution on the host running Auto-GPT by e.g. overwriting autogpt/main.py which will be executed outside of the docker environment meant to sandbox custom python code execution the next time Auto-GPT is started. The issue has been patched in version 0.4.3. As a workaround, the risk introduced by this vulnerability can be remediated by running Auto-GPT in a virtual machine, or another environment in which damage to files or corruption of the program is not a critical problem.

CVE

CVE-2023-37274

CWE

CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

CVSS base score

7.8

Published

2023-07-13

OWASP

A04 Insecure Design

Orthogonal defect classification

Function

Code defect classification

Incorrect Functionality

Category

Input Validation and Sanitization

Subcategory

Path Traversal

Accessibility scope

Remote

Impact

Arbitrary Code Execution

Fixed by upgrading

Yes

Solution

Update to Auto-GPT version 0.4.3 or higher to fix the vulnerability.

import os

def execute_python_code(code, basename):
    path = os.path.join("workspace", basename)

    with open(path, 'w') as f:
        f.write(code)

import os

def execute_python_code(code, basename):
    path_basename = os.path.basename(basename)
    path = os.path.join("workspace", path_basename)

    if not path.startswith(os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "workspace")):
        raise ValueError("Invalid file path")

    with open(path, 'w') as f:
        f.write(code)

@misc{vaitp:cve202337274,
  title        = {{Path traversal vulnerability in Auto-GPT}},
  author       = {Bogaerts, Fr\'ed\'eric and Ivaki, Naghmeh and Fonseca, Jos\'e},
  year         = {2023},
  note         = {VAITP Python Vulnerability Dataset, entry CVE-2023-37274},
  howpublished = {\url{https://netpack.pt/vaitp/vulnerability/CVE-2023-37274/}}
}