trunk.cocoapods.org is the authentication server for the CoacoaPods dependency manager. The part of trunk which verifies whether a user has a real email address on signup used a rfc-822 library which executes a shell command to validate the email domain MX records validity. It works via an DNS MX. This lookup could be manipulated to also execute a command on the trunk server, effectively giving root access to the server and the infrastructure. This issue was patched server-side with commit 001cc3a430e75a16307f5fd6cdff1363ad2f40f3 in September 2023. This RCE triggered a full user-session reset, as an attacker could have used this method to write to any Podspec in trunk.

GitHub, Inc. AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

GitHub, Inc. CWE-74

GitHub, Inc. https://blog.cocoapods.org/CocoaPods-Trunk-RCEs-2023 [No types assigned]

GitHub, Inc. https://evasec.webflow.io/blog/eva-discovered-supply-chain-vulnerabities-in-cocoapods#2-remote-code-execution-on-the-cocoapods-trunk-server [No types assigned]

GitHub, Inc. https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/security/advisories/GHSA-x2x4-g675-qg7c [No types assigned]