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Detecting Vulnerabilities in Linux Distributions

Overview

Mend maintains a unique method for associating security vulnerabilities with their corresponding OS components. For each vulnerability in the database, the vulnerable source file is identified by a researcher and a link is automatically created between the vulnerable source file and the vulnerability ID.

However, with Linux vulnerabilities, associating vulnerabilities with their components is different. Linux distributions build their own packages, composed primarily of C projects. If the libraries or files of these projects are found to be vulnerable, the distribution or package may not be vulnerable, as multiple security patches are released by the Linux distributions. Conflicts have been found between detected vulnerabilities and the vulnerabilities published within each Linux distribution's official security advisory.

As a result, Mend has changed its method for detecting vulnerabilities in Linux package associations. A new mechanism extracts the vulnerabilities from the relevant security advisory.

For example -Red Hat Customer Portal - Security Advisories

NOTE: This mechanism is currently supported for RedHat Enterprise Linux (RPM-based), Debian, and Debian Ubuntu (DEB-based).

How Does the Mechanism Work?

Instead of linking the security vulnerabilities to the specific source files that were used to build the package, Mend treats the package as a whole and associates them to it, based on the relevant security advisory.

This is applicable when scanning Docker images or using the Linux Package Manager mode (scanPackageManager).

Additional details, such as information about the operating system and the relevant architecture, are detected and used to increase the accuracy of the results.

NOTE: When the Unified Agent is configured with scanPackageManager=true, the excludes\includes parameters will be ignored completely during the scan. Specifying excludes\includes is currently not supported for Linux Package Manager scans.

Use Case Examples

Debian 

The following example illustrates this method for a Debian distribution.

Detected Vulnerability: CVE-2018-20177

Vulnerable Package: “rdesktop_1.8.2-3_i386.deb”

In the CVE Advisory Page (https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-20177 ), you can see the vulnerable package and relevant versions.

As shown above, this package “rdesktop” was fixed in version “1.8.4-1” and is vulnerable for the following Debian versions: Stretch, Buster, Bullseye, Bookworm.

This means that if you are using any of the above Debian versions through your operating system and using the above package “rdesktop_1.8.2-3_i386.deb”, you are exposed to the vulnerability CVE-2018-20177.

On the other hand, if you are using Debian Wheezy through your operating system and using the same package, you are not exposed to the vulnerability.

RedHat Enterprise 

The following example illustrates how vulnerabilities are detected for a RedHat Enterprise Linux distribution.

Detected Vulnerability: CVE-2021-2388

Vulnerable Package: “java-11-openjdk-11.0.9.11-2.el7_9.i686.rpm”

In the CVE Advisory Page (https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-2388 ), you can see the vulnerable package and a link to the Fixed packages information: RHSA-2021:2784 - Security Advisory.


As shown above, this package “java-11-openjdk” was fixed in version “11.0.9.11-2” and is vulnerable for the RedHat Enterprise Linux versions:  RHEL 7 -- 7.9

This means that if you are using the above package “java-11-openjdk-11.0.9.11-2.el7_9.i686.rpm”, which is definitely related to RHEL 7.9 (it is reflected above the package name: “el7_9”), you are exposed to the vulnerability CVE-2021-2388.

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