Vulnerability Database

346,350

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2023-41319 — ethyca-fides

Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Fides is an open-source privacy engineering platform for managing the fulfillment of data privacy requests in a runtime environment, and the enforcement of privacy regulations in code. The Fides webserver API allows custom integrations to be uploaded as a ZIP file. This ZIP file must contain YAML files, but Fides can be configured to also accept the inclusion of custom Python code in it. The custom code is executed in a restricted, sandboxed environment, but the sandbox can be bypassed to execute any arbitrary code. The vulnerability allows the execution of arbitrary code on the target system within the context of the webserver python process owner on the webserver container, which by default is root, and leverage that access to attack underlying infrastructure and integrated systems. This vulnerability affects Fides versions 2.11.0 through 2.19.0. Exploitation is limited to API clients with the CONNECTOR_TEMPLATE_REGISTER authorization scope. In the Fides Admin UI this scope is restricted to highly privileged users, specifically root users and users with the owner role. Exploitation is only possible if the security configuration parameter allow_custom_connector_functions is enabled by the user deploying the Fides webserver container, either in fides.toml or by setting the env var FIDES__SECURITY__ALLOW_CUSTOM_CONNECTOR_FUNCTIONS=True. By default this configuration parameter is disabled. The vulnerability has been patched in Fides version 2.19.0. Users are advised to upgrade to this version or later to secure their systems against this threat. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that allow_custom_connector_functions in fides.toml and the FIDES__SECURITY__ALLOW_CUSTOM_CONNECTOR_FUNCTIONS are both either unset or explicit set to False.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: High
  • Score: 8.8
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.