Vulnerability PYSEC-2026-527

Summary

A SQL injection vulnerability in FilterEngine.create_postgres_query allows any authenticated Rucio user to execute arbitrary SQL against the configured PostgreSQL metadata database through the DID search endpoint (GET /dids/<scope>/dids/search). When the external metadata plugin postgres_meta is configured, attacker-controlled filter keys and values are interpolated directly into raw SQL statements via Python str.format. This enables full database compromise including data exfiltration, data modification, and potential remote code execution via COPY ... FROM PROGRAM.

Details

Will follow in two weeks (2025-05-19).

Impact

Vulnerability type: SQL Injection (CWE-89)

Who is impacted:

• Rucio deployments that have explicitly configured the postgres_meta metadata plugin.

What an attacker can do:

• Data modification: PostgreSQL stacked queries enable arbitrary INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE operations.
• Remote code execution: Via PostgreSQL's COPY ... FROM PROGRAM if the database user has superuser or pg_execute_server_program privileges.
• File system access: Via COPY ... TO/FROM '/path' if filesystem permissions allow.

Further elevation when the same postgres database and access is used for metadata and for Rucio itself

• Full database read access: Extract any table including identities (password hashes and salts), tokens (active authentication sessions), accounts (user enumeration), rse_settings (storage endpoint credentials), and rules (data management policies) could be extracted.
• Password hash extraction: Combined with Rucio's use of single-iteration SHA-256 for password hashing (no KDF), extracted hashes can be cracked at GPU speed.
• Authentication token theft: Active bearer tokens can be extracted and used for immediate session hijacking.

Required attacker privileges: Any authenticated Rucio user. Authentication tokens can be obtained via any supported method (userpass, x509, OIDC, SAML, SSH, GSS). No special roles or administrative permissions are required. The GET /dids/<scope>/dids/search endpoint is available to all authenticated users.