Security Bulletin: Vulnerabilities in Apache Log4j affect IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container Backup and Restore for Kubernetes and OpenShift (CVE-2021-45105, CVE-2021-45046)

Security Bulletin

Summary

Vulnerabilities in Apache Log4j could result in a denial of service or remote code execution. These vulnerabilities may affect IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container backup and restore for Kubernetes and OpenShift due to its use of the Strimzi operator. The below fix package includes Apache Log4j 2.17

Vulnerability Details

CVEID: CVE-2021-45105
DESCRIPTION: Apache Log4j is vulnerable to a denial of service, caused by the failure to protect from uncontrolled recursion from self-referential lookups. A remote attacker with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data could craft malicious input data that contains a recursive lookup to cause a StackOverflowError that will terminate the process. Note: The vulnerability is also called LOG4J2-3230.
CVSS Base score: 7.5
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/215647 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)

CVEID: CVE-2021-45046
DESCRIPTION: Apache Log4j could result in remote code execution, caused by an incomplete fix of CVE-2021-44228 in certain non-default configurations. When the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with a Context Lookup, an attacker with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data can craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern to leak sensitive information and remote code execution in some environments and local code execution in all environments.
CVSS Base score: 9
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/215195 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Affected Product(s)	Version(s)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container Backup and Restore for Kubernetes	10.1.9.0-10.1.9.1
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container Backup and Restore for OpenShift	10.1.9.0-10.1.9.1

Remediation/Fixes

IBM strongly recommends addressing this vulnerability now by upgrading to the fixed level instead of using the manual process described under Workarounds and Mitigations.

Note: The below fix package includes Log4j 2.17. Customers running 10.1.9.0 or 10.1.9.1 will need to uninstall before installing 10.1.9.2.

IBM Spectrum Protect Affected Versions	Fixing Level	Platform	Link to Fix and Instructions
10.1.9.0-10.1.9.1	10.1.9.2	Linux	https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6487159 Note that customers running 10.1.9.0 or 10.1.9.1 will need to uninstall before installing 10.1.9.2.

Workarounds and Mitigations

IBM strongly recommends addressing this vulnerability by upgrading to the fixed level (above link) instead of using the procedure for manually addressing this vulnerability, but the manual process is as follows:

The strimzi Operator used by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container backup and restore is affected by this vulnerability.

To fix this issue:
:

For Cluster Operator, edit the Deployment and set the environment variable JAVA_OPTS to -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true

1. oc get deployment -n baas

2. oc edit deployment strimzi-cluster-operator-v0.26.0 -n baas

e.g.

spec:

containers:

- args:

- /opt/strimzi/bin/cluster_operator_run.sh

env:

- name: JAVA_OPTS

value: -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true

- name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE

valueFrom:

fieldRef:..........

Editing deployment will cause strimzi-cluster-opreator pod to restart after which the system is patched.

Alternatively run the following command:

kubectl set env deploy/strimzi-cluster-operator-v0.26.0 JAVA_OPTS="-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true" LOG4J_FORMAT_MSG_NO_LOOKUPS="true" -n baas

3. Edit the Kafka cluster definition so that the strimzi-entity-operator sets formatMsgNoLookup=true.

oc edit kafkas.kafka.strimzi.io -n baas baas

Under the field spec.entityOperator.topicOperator set the following fields.

topicOperator:

jvmOptions:

javaSystemProperties:

- name: log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups

value: "true"

Under the field spec.entityOperator.userOperator set the following fields.

userOperator:

jvmOptions:

javaSystemProperties:

- name: log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups

value: "true"

Save and close the file. The baas-entity-operator pod will automatically terminate and restart with the new options.

4. Confirm the settings were applied correctly by examining the logs of the baas-entity-operator pod.

The topic and user operator container logs should have lines such as below when starting that the JAVA_OPTS includes the formatMsgNoLookup=true option. See below for an example. Individual container logs may vary.

+ JAVA_OPTS=' -Dlog4j2.configurationFile=file:/opt/topic-operator/custom-config/log4j2.properties -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true -Dvertx.cacheDirBase=/tmp/vertx-cache -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom'

Alternatives:

Updating the Strimzi operator in the install namespace from 0.26.0 to 0.26.1 or higher version will fix the vulnerability.

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References

Complete CVSS v3 Guide
On-line Calculator v3

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Acknowledgement

Change History

03 January 2022: Initial Publication

*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.

Disclaimer

Review the IBM security bulletin disclaimer and definitions regarding your responsibilities for assessing potential impact of security vulnerabilities to your environment.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Tips

Security Bulletin: Vulnerabilities in Apache Log4j affect IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Container Backup and Restore for Kubernetes and OpenShift (CVE-2021-45105, CVE-2021-45046)