CVE-2024-47174

Credential leak when credentials are used with `<nix/fetchurl.nix>`

MEDIUM
5.9
CVSS Score
Published: September 26, 2024 at 05:27 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 07:56 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorNix

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Severity
MEDIUM5.9
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix systems. Starting in version 1.11 and prior to versions 2.18.8 and 2.24.8, `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` did not verify TLS certificates on HTTPS connections. This could lead to connection details such as full URLs or credentials leaking in case of a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` is also known as the builtin derivation builder `builtin:fetchurl`. It's not to be confused with the evaluation-time function `builtins.fetchurl`, which was not affected by this issue. A user may be affected by the risk of leaking credentials if they have a `netrc` file for authentication, or rely on derivations with `impureEnvVars` set to use credentials from the environment. In addition, the commonplace trust-on-first-use (TOFU) technique of updating dependencies by specifying an invalid hash and obtaining it from a remote store was also vulnerable to a MITM injecting arbitrary store objects. This also applied to the impure derivations experimental feature. Note that this may also happen when using Nixpkgs fetchers to obtain new hashes when not using the fake hash method, although that mechanism is not implemented in Nix itself but rather in Nixpkgs using a fixed-output derivation. The behavior was introduced in version 1.11 to make it consistent with the Nixpkgs `pkgs.fetchurl` and to make `<nix/fetchurl.nix>` work in the derivation builder sandbox, which back then did not have access to the CA bundles by default. Nowadays, CA bundles are bind-mounted on Linux. This issue has been fixed in Nix 2.18.8 and 2.24.8. As a workaround, implement (authenticated) fetching with `pkgs.fetchurl` from Nixpkgs, using `impureEnvVars` and `curlOpts` as needed.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 2.18.8v < 2.24.8
Affected range stops below 2.18.8, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 2.24.8, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.9MEDIUMGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-287

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