The Fides webserver requires a connection to a hosted PostgreSQL database for persistent storage of application data. If the password used by the webserver for this database connection includes special characters such as @ and $, webserver startup fails and the part of the password following the special character is exposed in webserver error logs.

This is caused by improper escaping of the SQLAlchemy password string, see here and here for more info.

Impact

Partial exposure of hosted database password in webserver logs

Patches

The vulnerability has been patched in Fides version 2.37.0. Users are advised to upgrade to this version or later to secure their systems against this threat.

Workarounds

There are no workarounds.

Proof of Concept

1. Create a hosted PostgreSQL database for Fides with a password including @ or $ e.g. p@ssword
2. Run Fides and observe failure, sample log attached

fides  | 2024-02-28 14:27:52.609 | ERROR    | fides.api.db.database:configure_db:117 - Unable to configure database: sqlalchemy.exc.OperationalError: (psycopg2.OperationalError) could not translate host name "ssword@fides-db" to address: Name or service not known

References

• GHSA-8cm5-jfj2-26q7
• ethyca/fides@6ab37b1
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-34715
• https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/14/core/engines.html#escaping-special-characters-such-as-signs-in-passwords
• sqlalchemy/sqlalchemy#6615