datadog Using the Dirty Pipe vulnerability to break out from containers | Datadog (opens in new tab)
The Dirty Pipe vulnerability (CVE-2022-0847) is a critical Linux kernel flaw that allows unprivileged processes to write data to any file they can read, effectively bypassing standard write permissions. This primitive is particularly dangerous in containerized environments like Kubernetes, where it can be leveraged to overwrite the host’s container runtime binary. By exploiting how the kernel manages page caches, an attacker can achieve a full container breakout and gain administrative privileges on the underlying host. ## Container Runtimes and the OCI Specification * Kubernetes utilizes the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) to manage containers via high-level runtimes like containerd or CRI-O. * These high-level runtimes rely on low-level Open Container Interface (OCI) runtimes, most commonly runC, to handle the heavy lifting of namespaces and control groups. * Isolation is achieved by runC setting up a restricted environment before executing the user-supplied entrypoint via the `execve` system call. ## Evolution of runC Vulnerabilities * A historical vulnerability, CVE-2019-5736, previously allowed escapes by overwriting the host’s runC binary through the `/proc/self/exe` file descriptor. * To mitigate this, runC was updated to either clone the binary before execution or mount the host's runC binary as read-only inside the container. * While the read-only mount improved performance through kernel cache page sharing, it created a target for the Dirty Pipe vulnerability, which specifically targets the kernel page cache. ## The Dirty Pipe Exploitation Primitive * Dirty Pipe allows an attacker to overwrite any file they can read, including read-only files, by manipulating the kernel's internal pipe-buffer structures. * The exploit targets the page cache, meaning the overwrite is non-persistent and resides only in memory; the original file on disk remains unchanged. * In a container escape scenario, the attacker waits for a runC process to start (triggered by actions like `kubectl exec`) and targets the file descriptor at `/proc/<runC-pid>/exe`. ## Proof-of-Concept Escape Walkthrough * The attack begins with a standard, unprivileged pod running a malicious script that monitors the system for new runC processes. * Once a `kubectl exec` command is issued by an administrator, the script identifies the runC PID and applies the Dirty Pipe exploit to the associated executable. * The exploit overwrites the runC binary in the kernel page cache with a malicious ELF binary. * Because the host kernel is executing this hijacked binary with root privileges to manage the container, the attacker’s malicious code (e.g., a reverse shell or administrative command) runs with full host-level authority. To protect against this attack vector, it is essential to patch the Linux kernel to a version that includes the fix for CVE-2022-0847 and ensure that container nodes are running updated distributions.