AWS’s Log4Shell Hot Patch Vulnerable to Container Escape and Privilege Escalation


ollowing Log4Shell, AWS released several hot patch solutions that monitor for vulnerable Java applications and Java containers and patch them on the fly. Each solution suits a different environment, covering standalone servers, Kubernetes clusters, Elastic Container Service (ECS) clusters and Fargate. The hot patches aren’t exclusive to AWS environments and can be installed onto any cloud or on-premises environment.

Unit 42 researchers identified severe security issues within these patching solutions and partnered with AWS to remediate them. After installing the patch service to a server or cluster, every container in that environment can exploit it to take over its underlying host. For example, if you installed the hot patch to a Kubernetes cluster, every container in your cluster can now escape until you either disable the hot patch or upgrade to the fixed version. Aside from containers, unprivileged processes can also exploit the patch to escalate privileges and gain root code execution.

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Source: Palo Alto/Unit 42