Headline
CVE-2023-46115: Updater Private Keys Possibly Leaked via Vite Environment Variables
Tauri is a framework for building binaries for all major desktop platforms. This advisory is not describing a vulnerability in the Tauri code base itself but a commonly used misconfiguration which could lead to leaking of the private key and updater key password into bundled Tauri applications using the Vite frontend in a specific configuration. The Tauri documentation used an insecure example configuration in the Vite guide to showcase how to use Tauri together with Vite. Copying the following snippet envPrefix: ['VITE_', 'TAURI_'], from this guide into the vite.config.ts of a Tauri project leads to bundling the TAURI_PRIVATE_KEY and TAURI_KEY_PASSWORD into the Vite frontend code and therefore leaking this value to the released Tauri application. Using the envPrefix: ['VITE_'], or any other framework than Vite means you are not impacted by this advisory. Users are advised to rotate their updater private key if they are affected by this (requires Tauri CLI >=1.5.5). After updating the envPrefix configuration, generate a new private key with tauri signer generate, saving the new private key and updating the updater’s pubkey value on tauri.conf.json with the new public key. To update your existing application, the next application build must be signed with the older private key in order to be accepted by the existing application.
Impact
This advisory is not describing a vulnerability in the Tauri code base itself but a commonly used misconfiguration which could lead to leaking of the private key and updater key password into bundled Tauri applications using the Vite frontend in a specific configuration.
The Tauri documentation used an insecure example configuration in the Vite guide to showcase how to use Tauri together with Vite.
Copying the following snippet envPrefix: ['VITE_’, ‘TAURI_’], from this guide into the vite.config.ts of a Tauri project leads to bundling the TAURI_PRIVATE_KEY and TAURI_KEY_PASSWORD into the Vite frontend code and therefore leaking this value to the released Tauri application.
Using the envPrefix: [‘VITE_’], or any other framework than Vite means you are not impacted by this advisory.
Patches
The documentation has been patched but as the root cause is not in Tauri itself the issue is not fixed by updating Tauri.
The vite.config.ts configuration of the project needs to be adapted.
We recommend rotating your updater private key if you are affected by this (requires Tauri CLI >=1.5.5). After updating the envPrefix configuration, generate a new private key with tauri signer generate, saving the new private key and updating the updater’s pubkey value on tauri.conf.json with the new public key. To update your existing application, the next application build must be signed with the older private key in order to be accepted by the existing application.
Workarounds
The envPrefix: [‘VITE_’],should be used and the desired TAURI variables manually added.
Respective these variables could be added TAURI_PLATFORM, TAURI_ARCH, TAURI_FAMILY, TAURI_PLATFORM_VERSION, TAURI_PLATFORM_TYPE and TAURI_DEBUG without leaking sensitive information.
We urge affected users to implement the workaround as the 1.x branch will not receive a general prevention fix as it would break systems.
References
The issue was originally disclosed in our discord here.
The affected guide is https://tauri.app/v1/guides/getting-started/setup/vite/.
Related news
### Impact This advisory is not describing a vulnerability in the Tauri code base itself but a commonly used misconfiguration which could lead to leaking of the private key and updater key password into bundled Tauri applications using the Vite frontend in a specific configuration. The Tauri documentation used an insecure example configuration in the [Vite guide](https://tauri.app/v1/guides/getting-started/setup/vite/) to showcase how to use Tauri together with Vite. Copying the following snippet `envPrefix: ['VITE_', 'TAURI_'],` from this guide into the `vite.config.ts` of a Tauri project leads to bundling the `TAURI_PRIVATE_KEY` and `TAURI_KEY_PASSWORD` into the Vite frontend code and therefore leaking this value to the released Tauri application. Using the `envPrefix: ['VITE_'],` or any other framework than Vite means you are not impacted by this advisory. ### Patches The documentation has been patched but as the root cause is not in Tauri itself the issue is not fixed by upd...