Out-of-Bounds Access in Claircore APK Scanner Causes DoS

Executive Summary

This vulnerability is a denial-of-service flaw in claircore's apk package scanner. It occurs when malformed package-database data in a container layer causes an out-of-bounds access, leading the scanner to panic. If the panic is not recovered, the Clair indexer process crashes, resulting in a denial of service.

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Detection Guidance

Detecting this vulnerability requires monitoring Clair indexer logs for crashes during container image indexing. Check for panic errors in logs when processing apk package databases. Use commands like 'kubectl logs <clair-pod>' or 'journalctl -u clair' to inspect logs for unhandled panics.

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Impact Analysis

An attacker who submits a crafted image layer for indexing could exploit this to crash the Clair indexer. In long-lived setups, this may cause sustained outages until manual recovery. In typical Quay/Clair deployments on Kubernetes, the pod may crash but restart automatically, causing brief interruptions rather than prolonged downtime.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily causes a denial of service by crashing the Clair indexer process, which may lead to temporary unavailability of vulnerability scanning for container images. For compliance standards like GDPR or HIPAA, which require availability and integrity of systems processing sensitive data, this could result in brief disruptions in security monitoring. However, the impact is typically limited to short outages due to automatic pod restarts in Kubernetes environments, reducing long-term compliance risks.

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Mitigation Strategies

Apply patches or updates to Clair and claircore to fix the apk scanner flaw. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict untrusted users from submitting container images for indexing. Monitor indexer health and ensure automatic pod restarts are configured to minimize downtime.

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