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DuckDBGHSA-w2gf-jxc9-pf2q

sniff_csv provides filesystem access even when enable_external_access is disabled in duckdb

High7.5CVE-2024-41672 · Published Jan 21, 2025 · updated Jun 10, 2026

GitHub advisory

Affected versions

PackageAffectedFixed in
duckdb
PyPI
>= 1.0.0, < 1.1.01.1.0
Details and references

### Summary Content in filesystem is accessible for reading using `sniff_csv`, even with `enable_external_access=false`. ### Details During a pentest, a security researcher was able to access environment variable data and other system data by using the `sniff_csv` function, even though we set `enable_external_access` to false. ### PoC ```SQL SET enable_external_access=false; SET lock_configuration=true; SELECT Columns FROM sniff_csv('/proc/self/environ'); ``` ### Impact Provides an attacker with access to filesystem even when access is expected to be disabled and other similar functions do NOT provide access. For example `select * from read_csv('/proc/self/environ')` fails with a permission error. There seems to be two vectors to this vulnerability: 1. Access to files that should otherwise not be allowed. (We expect `Permission Error: Scanning CSV files is disabled through configuration` and not to provide any access to the file or even acknowledge that it exists). 2. The content from a (non-csv?) file can be read (e.g. `/etc/hosts`, `proc/self/environ`, etc) even though that doesn't seem to be the intent of the sniff_csv function (my understanding is it's intending to provide information about the shape of the data, but not provide the data itself). ### Workaround It is possible to work around the issue by disabling the local file system using the `disabled_filesystems` setting: ```SQL SET disabled_filesystems='LocalFileSystem'; SET lock_configuration=true; SELECT Columns FROM sniff_csv('/proc/self/environ'); ``` will result in `Permission Error: File system LocalFileSystem has been disabled by configuration`. ### Fix A fix has been merged into the `main` branch (https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb/pull/13133), and will be released with the next DuckDB release.

CVSS 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Severity from
GitHub (reviewed advisory)
Weakness
CWE-200
Also known as
CVE-2024-41672, PYSEC-2024-203

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