Description
wheel is a command line tool for manipulating Python wheel files, as defined in PEP 427. In versions 0.40.0 through 0.46.1, the unpack function is vulnerable to file permission modification through mishandling of file permissions after extraction. The logic blindly trusts the filename from the archive header for the chmod operation, even though the extraction process itself might have sanitized the path. Attackers can craft a malicious wheel file that, when unpacked, changes the permissions of critical system files (e.g., /etc/passwd, SSH keys, config files), allowing for Privilege Escalation or arbitrary code execution by modifying now-writable scripts. This issue has been fixed in version 0.46.2.
Problem types
CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Product status
References
github.com/.../wheel/security/advisories/GHSA-8rrh-rw8j-w5fx
github.com/...ommit/7a7d2de96b22a9adf9208afcc9547e1001569fef
github.com/pypa/wheel/releases/tag/0.46.2