Updates to the Bug Slayer bug bounty program
We're making changes to the Bug Slayer bug bounty program to clarify its scope and improve rewards.
GitHub Security Lab
Fail2exploit: a security audit of Fail2ban
The story of how I failed to find any vulnerabilities in Fail2ban.
Kevin Backhouse
Security Lab research: a year in review
The GitHub Security Lab is celebrating its very first birthday! In this post we will highlight some of our inaugural research findings and initiatives as we gear up for the 2021 bug hunting season.
GitHub Security Lab
Increased bounty rewards for the GitHub Security Lab community!
In this post we look back on one year of building a home for the security research' community on GitHub, and announce exciting milestones and next steps for our bounty program
GitHub Security Lab
Hack this repository: The EkoParty 2020 GitHub CTF challenges
In this post we recap the intended solutions for the GitHub levels of the EkoParty 2020 main CTF.
Bas Alberts
The weakest link
In this post we will talk about how we identified an important design detail in a C library called eventmachine and how it undermined the security of several ruby packages.
Agustin Gianni
CVE-2020-0688 Losing the keys to your kingdom
Learn about how reusing hardcoded HMAC keys led to remote code execution on Exchange servers.
Alvaro Munoz
CVE-2020-5398 Reflected File Download in Spring MVC/WebFlux
Learn about Reflected File Downloads by reviewing how Spring MVC and WebFlux were affected.
Alvaro Munoz
CVE-2019-10779: Cross-site scripting in GCHQ Stroom
GCHQ Stroom is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting due to the ability to load the Stroom dashboard on another site and insufficient protection against window event origins.
Jonathan Leitschuh
Another libssh2 integer overflow (CVE-2019-17498)
GitHub security researcher Kevin Backhouse describes a new integer overflow vulnerability in libssh2 and explains the benefits of using variant analysis with QL when reporting a vulnerability.
Kevin Backhouse
In-Memory Data Grid Applications: Finding Common Java Deserialization Vulnerabilities with CodeQL
In-memory data grid applications often make heavy use of serialization to transfer data. Our security researchers look at Java deserialization vulnerabilities in Apache Geode, Red Hat Infinispan, Ignite, and Hazelcast.
Man Yue Mo
VLC Vulnerabilities Discovered by the GitHub Security Research Team
GitHub Security Lab’s research team discovers 11 bugs in VLC, the popular media player. The VLC vulnerability CVE-2019-14438 could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the user’s computer.
Antonio Morales
U-Boot NFS RCE Vulnerabilities (CVE-2019-14192)
Semmle’s security research team discovers 13 U-Boot RCE vulnerabilities in its bootloader, which is commonly used by IoT, Kindle, and ARM ChromeOS devices.
Fermin J. Serna
libssh2 integer overflows and an out-of-bounds read (CVE-2019-13115)
Get a technical deep dive into some libssh2 integer overflows and an out-of-bounds read. GitHub security researcher Kevin Backhouse shows how the vulnerability can be triggered by connecting to a malicious ssh server.
Kevin Backhouse
Insecure Deserialization: Finding Java Vulnerabilities with CodeQL
Deserialization of untrusted data can lead to vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. We can use CodeQL, the code query technology of LGTM, to find such deserialization vulnerabilities.
Anders Schack-Mulligen
Facebook Fizz integer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2019-3560)
An unauthenticated remote attacker could trigger an infinite loop in Fizz, Facebook's open source TLS library.
Kevin Backhouse
Exploiting CVE-2018-19134: Ghostscript RCE through type confusion
This post describes how I used variant analysis to develop an exploit for Ghostscript CVE-2018-19134, a type confusion vulnerability that allows arbitrary shell command execution.
Man Yue Mo
Ghostscript type confusion: Using variant analysis to find vulnerabilities
This post describes how to perform variant analysis with CodeQL to catch missing type checking in Ghostscript, leading to the discovery of 3 new type confusion vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-19134, CVE-2018-19476, CVE-2018-19477)
Man Yue Mo
CVE-2018-19475: Ghostscript shell command execution in SAFER mode
This post describes how I carried out variant analysis on a vulnerability found by Google Project Zero member Tavis Ormandy and ended up with a new one.
Man Yue Mo
Apple XNU exploits: ICMP proof of concept
A few weeks ago, we disclosed 6 vulnerabilities in Apple's XNU operating system kernel. This post gives the details of our proof-of-concept exploits. It also explains how a query helped us find a path to the vulnerable code.
Kevin Backhouse
OGNL Apache Struts exploit: Weaponizing a sandbox bypass (CVE-2018-11776)
This post reviews various security measures that were implemented in Apache Struts to constrain the power of OGNL, and how to bypass them (up to version 2.5.16).
Man Yue Mo
CVE-2018-18820: Snprintf Vulnerability in Icecast
Our automated analysis found a remote code execution vulnerability in the Icecast streaming media server.
Nick Rolfe
CVE-2018-4259: MacOS NFS vulnerabilties lead to kernel RCE
A custom query, written for Apple's macOS operating system kernel, has found multiple stack and heap buffer overflows which are triggerable by connecting to a malicious NFS file server.
Kevin Backhouse
Kernel crash caused by out-of-bounds write in Apple's ICMP packet-handling code (CVE-2018-4407)
The networking implementation in iOS and macOS contained an out-of-bounds write, which could be triggered by sending a malicious packet to the device. No user interaction was required. This post explains how it was found using CodeQL.
Kevin Backhouse
Apache Struts double evaluation RCE lottery
This post takes a look at a type of RCE vulnerability in Apache Struts known as a double evaluation and explains how to find it using CodeQL.
Man Yue Mo
OGNL injection in Apache Struts: Discovering exploits with taint tracking
This post gives more technical detail about general taint-tracking analysis in Apache Struts. It also provides more information on how to write queries that take the architecture of Struts into account to discover various OGNL injection issues.
Man Yue Mo
CVE-2018-11776: How to find 5 RCEs in Apache Struts with CodeQL
Semmle security researcher Man Yue Mo explains how he used CodeQL's Data Flow library to discover multiple RCE vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-11776) in Apache Struts.
Man Yue Mo
Librelp buffer overflow fix (cve-2018-1000140) - a collaboration between Adiscon and Semmle
This is a joint blog post, from Adiscon and Semmle, about the finding and fixing of CVE-2018-1000140, a security vulnerability in librelp.
Kevin Backhouse
CVE-2018-4249 & CVE-2017-13904: Remote code execution in Apple's packet mangler
The packet-mangler component of Apple's macOS operating system kernel contained a remote code execution vulnerability which could be triggered by sending a malicious network packet to the Mac over the internet. This post explains how it we found it using CodeQL.
Kevin Backhouse
Apple NFS Diskless Boot: Negative integer overflow vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-4136 & CVE-2018-4160)
TThis post explains how to use CodeQL to find calls to bcopy where the size argument might be negative.
Kevin Backhouse
Etherpad reflected file download: Vulnerability hunting with CodeQL (CVE-2018-6835)
This blog post explains how CodeQL can be used to discover so-called 'Reflected File Download' vulnerabilities in JavaScript applications. As an example, we look at CVE-2018-6835 which we recently found in the Etherpad collaborative editor.
Man Yue Mo
Spring Data REST exploit (CVE-2017-8046): Finding a RCE vulnerability with CodeQL
The query language that forms the foundation of LGTM's code analysis makes it very easy to find new security vulnerabilities and variants of it. In this post we look at Spring Data REST, and how CodeQL helped making sure a remote code execution vulnerability was truly eradicated.
Man Yue Mo
Stack buffer overflow in Qualcomm MSM 4.4 - Finding bugs with CodeQL
This post describes how we can use CodeQL to find unsafe uses of copy_from_user - a C function that is used to copy data from user memory into kernel memory. When used incorrectly, it could cause a stack buffer overflow in the kernel.
Kevin Backhouse
Castor and Hessian java deserialization vulnerabilities
This post shows how to use the new TaintTracking library to easily identify unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities associated with the Castor and Hessian deserialization framework. In particular, two new vulnerabilities, CVE-2017-12633 and CVE-2017-12634 are discovered in Apache Camel.
Man Yue Mo
XXE attack example using jBoss vulnerability (jBPM) CVE-2017-7545
This post shows how the out-of-the-box XXE query in LGTM catches an exploitable XXE vulnerability in the JBoss business process manager that is difficult to find using fuzzing or testing.
Man Yue Mo
Apple's XNU Kernel: Finding a memory exposure vulnerability with CodeQL (CVE-2017-13782)
Apple's macOS XNU kernel can be tricked into leaking sensitive kernel memory. This post describes how we can use CodeQL to find such vulnerabilities in C code.
Kevin Backhouse
Restlet XXE vulnerability (CVE-2017-14949)
Unsafe parsing of user input XML data in Restlet leads to remote information disclosure by sending a malicious request to applications built using Restlet's REST API. In this post I will explain the details of the vulnerability, how it is found using CodeQL and why this type of mistake is easy to make when configuring XML parsers.
Man Yue Mo
Swagger YAML Parser Vulnerability (CVE-2017-1000207 and CVE-2017-1000208)
Parsing YAML data from untrusted source can lead to arbitrary code execution. This post discusses a vulnerability of this type in Swagger Parser (caused by unsafe use of SnakeYaml), and shows how such vulnerabilities can be found using QL.
Man Yue Mo
Restlet XML External Entity Expansion Vulnerability (CVE-2017-14868)
Unsafe parsing of user input XML data allows remote attacker arbitrary file access.
Man Yue Mo
Spring AMQP Exploit (CVE-2017-8045): Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Deserialization of untrusted user data caused a severe remote code execution vulnerability in Spring AMQP's implementation for handling errors. This post explains the details of the vulnerability and how we found it using our query language.
Man Yue Mo