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UAF: xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.find* when concurrent mutations happen #126037

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Description

@picnixz

Crash report

What happened?

Similar to #126033, the following crashes:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

class EvilTag(str):
    def __eq__(self, other):
        base.clear()
        return False

base = ET.Element('a')
base.append(ET.Element(EvilTag('x')))
base.find('a')

Attacked code:

cpython/Modules/_elementtree.c

Lines 1264 to 1275 in dc76a4a

for (i = 0; i < self->extra->length; i++) {
PyObject* item = self->extra->children[i];
int rc;
assert(Element_Check(st, item));
Py_INCREF(item);
rc = PyObject_RichCompareBool(((ElementObject*)item)->tag, path, Py_EQ);
if (rc > 0)
return item;
Py_DECREF(item);
if (rc < 0)
return NULL;
}

The findall and findtext methods also suffer from the same vulnerability. I haven't tried to attack Element.iterfind yet since it delegates to the Python function ElementPath.iterfind instead.

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

No response

Output from running 'python -VV' on the command line:

No response

Linked PRs

Activity

  1. added
    type-crashA hard crash of the interpreter, possibly with a core dump
    3.12only security fixes
    3.13only security fixes
    3.14bugs and security fixes
    on Oct 27, 2024
  2. self-assigned this
    on Oct 27, 2024
  3. changed the title [-]Crash: `xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.find*` with an evil tag's `str.__eq__`[/-] [+]Crash: `xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.find*` when concurrent mutations happen[/+] on Dec 17, 2024
  4. added a commit that references this issue on Mar 31, 2025
  5. changed the title [-]Crash: `xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.find*` when concurrent mutations happen[/-] [+]UAF: `xml.etree.ElementTree.Element.find*` when concurrent mutations happen[/+] on Mar 31, 2025
  6. added 3 commits that reference this issue on Mar 31, 2025
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3.12only security fixes3.13only security fixes3.14bugs and security fixesextension-modulesC modules in the Modules dirtopic-XMLtype-crashA hard crash of the interpreter, possibly with a core dump

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