CVE-2024-43378calamares-nixos-extensions LUKS keyfile exposure regression on legacy BIOS systems
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.13%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 97% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
calamares-nixos-extensions provides Calamares branding and modules for NixOS, a distribution of GNU/Linux. Users who installed NixOS through the graphical installer who used manual disk partitioning to create a setup where the system was booted via legacy BIOS rather than UEFI; some disk partitions are encrypted; but the partitions containing either `/` or `/boot` are unencrypted; have their LUKS disk encryption key file in plain text either in `/crypto_keyfile.bin`, or in a CPIO archive attached to their NixOS initrd. `nixos-install` is not affected, nor are UEFI installations, nor was the default automatic partitioning configuration on legacy BIOS systems. The problem has been fixed in calamares-nixos-extensions 0.3.17, which was included in NixOS. The current installer images for the NixOS 24.05 and unstable (24.11) channels are unaffected. The fix reached 24.05 at 2024-08-13 20:06:59 UTC, and unstable at 2024-08-15 09:00:20 UTC. Installer images downloaded before those times may be vulnerable. The best solution for affected users is probably to back up their data and do a complete reinstallation. However, the mitigation procedure in GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww should work solely for the case where `/` is encrypted but `/boot` is not. If `/` is unencrypted, then the `/crypto_keyfile.bin` file will need to be deleted in addition to the remediation steps in the previous advisory. This issue is a partial regression of CVE-2023-36476 / GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww, which was more severe as it applied to the default configuration on BIOS systems.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 6 days later
· 6 days later
Published
- 19 days later
· 19 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.13% · top 97% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
NixOS · calamares-nixos-extensions
- affected < 0.3.17
References
References5
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/security/advisories/GHSA-vfxf-gpmj-2p25 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/security/advisories/GHSA-3rvf-24q2-24ww (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/NixOS/calamares-nixos-extensions/pull/43 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/331607 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/334252 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2024-40256 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2024-43378)Record last updated .