- status.md: Current status of vulnerabilities reported on Fleet software components by security scanners (trivy, docker scout). This document is currently auto-generated from files in the
vex/directory. code/: Files used for vulnerability scanning on Fleet's source code.vex/: OpenVEX files to report status of vulnerabilities detected by Trivy on Fleet docker images.
The following Github CI actions perform daily vulnerability scanning on Fleet software components.
- trivy-scan.yml: Scan source code for vulnerabilities.
- build-fleetdm-fleetctl-check-vulnerabilities.yml: Scans for
HIGHandCRITICALvulnerabilities in fleetdm/fleetctl docker image. - check-wix-vulnerabilities.yml: Scans for
HIGHandCRITICALvulnerabilities in fleetdm/wix docker image. This docker image is used by thefleetctlexecutable to generate MSI fleetd installers. - check-bomutils-vulnerabilities.yml: Scans for
HIGHandCRITICALvulnerabilities in fleetdm/bomutils docker image. This docker image is used by thefleetctlexecutable to generate PKG fleetd installers. - goreleaser-snapshot-fleet.yaml: Scans for
HIGHandCRITICALvulnerabilities infleetdm/fleetdocker image before pushing a new release to the Docker registry. - check-vulnerabilities-in-released-docker-images.yml: Scans for
CRITICALvulnerabilities in the last 5 minor released versions of thefleetdm/fleetand on the latest release offleetdm/fleetctl.
If trivy reports a HIGH or CRITICAL CVE on one of Fleet's docker images (reported by the previously mentioned Github Actions), then we need to assess the report and track it with a status of "not affected", "affected", "fixed", or "under investigation".
We use the OpenVEX format to track the status of reported vulnerabilities (vex/ folder).
Once the status is determined, we use the vexctl tool to create/update VEX files.
brew install vexctlWe will use CVE-2025-27509 as an example. This CVE affected all versions of Fleet at the time (see the associated GitHub security advisory).
First we would need to create a VEX entry with the "affected" status for all released Fleet versions (<= v4.63.1).
Currently, OpenVEX doesn't support version ranges, so we need to define all versions one by one. We have the
./tools/github-releasestooling to help list all released versions of Fleet.
all_fleet_releases=$(go run ./tools/github-releases --all-cpes --separator=,)
vexctl create --product="$all_fleet_releases" \
--vuln="CVE-2025-27509" \
--status="affected" \
--aliases="https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/security/advisories/GHSA-52jx-g6m5-h735" \
--action-statement="Disable SAML SSO authentication." \
--author="@lucasmrod" > security/vex/fleet/CVE-2025-27509.vex.jsonOnce the fix was released in v4.64.2, v4.63.2, v4.62.4, v4.58.1 and v4.53.2 we would issue a new "fixed" statement on the existing VEX document:
vexctl add \
--document=./security/vex/fleet/CVE-2025-27509.vex.json \
--vuln="CVE-2025-27509" \
--status="fixed" \
--product="cpe:2.3:a:fleetdm:fleet:v4.64.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*,cpe:2.3:a:fleetdm:fleet:v4.63.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*,cpe:2.3:a:fleetdm:fleet:v4.62.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*,cpe:2.3:a:fleetdm:fleet:v4.58.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*,cpe:2.3:a:fleetdm:fleet:v4.53.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*" \
--aliases="https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/security/advisories/GHSA-52jx-g6m5-h735" \
--in-placeFollowing is an example for a CVE reported by tooling which we know doesn't affect fleetdm/fleetctl:
Example for CVE-2023-32698 on package github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2 which we know doesn't affect fleetdm/fleetctl:
vexctl create --product="fleetctl,pkg:golang/github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2" \
--vuln="CVE-2023-32698" \
--status="not_affected" \
--author="@getvictor" \
--justification="vulnerable_code_cannot_be_controlled_by_adversary" \
--status-note="When packaging linux files, fleetctl does not use global permissions. It was verified that packed fleetd package files do not have group/global write permissions." > security/vex/fleetctl/CVE-2023-32698.vex.jsonSimilarly, for CVE-2024-8260 on package github.com/open-policy-agent/opa which we know doesn't affect fleetdm/fleet:
vexctl create --product="fleet,pkg:golang/github.com/open-policy-agent/opa" \
--vuln="CVE-2024-8260" \
--status="not_affected" \
--author="@lucasmrod" \
--justification="vulnerable_code_cannot_be_controlled_by_adversary" \
--status-note="Fleet doesn't run on Windows, so it's not affected by this vulnerability." > security/vex/fleet/CVE-2024-8260.vex.jsonExamples of --product flag values (which accept "PURLs"):
liblzma5debian package:pkg:deb/debian/liblzma5.github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2golang package:pkg:golang/github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2.xerces/xercesImpljava package:pkg:maven/xerces/xercesImpl.
When new VEX files are generated or updated we can update the security/status.md file by running:
make vex-reportIf the detected vulnerability can be fixed by updating the base docker image or removing/changing components in the docker image then we do so and the update will be present on the next release. (It is good practice to keep software up-to-date.)
Following is the process to run when a CRITICAL CVE affects any of the five last releases of fleetdm/fleet docker image (reported by check-vulnerabilities-in-released-docker-images.yml).
- We will use the information reported by the scanner and update our
status.mdto keep users/customers informed. - If the
CRITICALvulnerability (that has a fix) is on thelatestrelease, we'll file a critical/P0 bug and release a patch ASAP (within 1 business day). The previous four versions scanned won't be retroactively patched, onlylatestwill be patched.
Following is the process to run when a CRITICAL CVE affects the released fleetdm/fleetctl:latest docker image:
- After
security/status.mdis updated, notify users/customers about the CVE in thefleetdm/fleetctlimage and possible remediations. - Create a Github issue with a
P0/securitylabel to track the fix. - The fix will be released on the next release of the
fleetdm/fleetctldocker image.
- The
trivycommand/executable can have some differences in CVEs reported when executingtrivy imageon a macOS host vs a Linux host. Mostly the difference seems to be in vulnerabilities found by thegobinarytool onfleetorfleetctlexecutables within the docker images. Thus, when in doubt, run trivy on a Ubuntu host to match CI which runs onubuntu-*Github runners.