Homebrew · Report #1166535
Brew bootstrap process is insecure
Informativestatus
mediumseverity
8upvotes
30 Apr 2021disclosed
How it was found
The process described in this page is not secure - no checksum / PGP signature is published and there is no way to check the download is legit: https://brew.sh/
"/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)""
This can lead to supply chain attacks such as the one that just happened here: https://about.codecov.io/security-update/
This can lead to two possible attacks:
- Supply chain attacks if the script is modified on the server.
- Injection attacks if the TLS connections are compromised.
Impact
For brew, a checksum and a way to check it should be provided, and security information should be added to the webpage referenced above. This way users can check the downloads.