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Attack Tree Analysis for swaywm/sway

Objective: Gain Unauthorized Control of Sway Desktop Environment

Attack Tree Visualization

                                 **Gain Unauthorized Control of Sway Desktop Environment**
                                                  |
      =================================================================================
      ||                                              ||[HIGH RISK]                      ||
  1. Exploit Sway Vulnerabilities 2. Manipulate Sway Configuration 3. Leverage Sway Features Maliciously || || || ----------------------- ==================================== ------------------------------------ || 1.2 2.1 3.3 WL Malicious Exploit Roots Config File "exec" Vuln. Command [HIGH RISK]

Attack Tree Path: 1. Exploit Sway Vulnerabilities (High-Risk Path)

  • 1.2 wlroots Vulnerabilities (Critical Node):
    • Description: This attack vector focuses on finding and exploiting vulnerabilities within the wlroots library, which Sway uses as its Wayland compositor backend. wlroots is a complex, low-level library responsible for handling display servers, input devices, and rendering.
    • Attack Steps:
      1. Vulnerability Discovery: The attacker researches wlroots source code, looking for security vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, use-after-free errors, integer overflows, or logic flaws in protocol handling. This often involves using fuzzing tools, static analysis, and manual code review.
      2. Exploit Development: Once a vulnerability is found, the attacker crafts a specific input or sequence of actions that triggers the vulnerability. This might involve sending specially crafted Wayland messages or manipulating input events.
      3. Exploit Delivery: The attacker needs a way to deliver the exploit to the target system. This could be through a malicious website, a compromised application, or a physical attack if the attacker has local access.
      4. Privilege Escalation (Potentially): Depending on the nature of the vulnerability and the system's configuration, the attacker might need to escalate privileges to gain full control.
    • Likelihood: Medium
    • Impact: Very High (Complete control over the Wayland session, effectively compromising the entire desktop environment.)
    • Effort: Very High
    • Skill Level: Expert
    • Detection Difficulty: Hard

Attack Tree Path: 2. Manipulate Sway Configuration (High-Risk Path & Critical Node)

  • 2.1 Malicious Config File (Critical Node):
    • Description: This attack vector involves gaining write access to the Sway configuration file (typically ~/.config/sway/config) and modifying it to include malicious commands or settings.
    • Attack Steps:
      1. Gaining Access: The attacker needs to gain write access to the configuration file. This can be achieved through several methods:
        • Social Engineering: Tricking the user into downloading and replacing their configuration file with a malicious one.
        • Exploiting Another Vulnerability: Leveraging a separate vulnerability (e.g., a file system vulnerability or a vulnerability in another application) to gain write access to the file.
        • Misconfigured System: Exploiting a system misconfiguration (e.g., overly permissive file permissions) that allows unauthorized access to the configuration file.
        • Physical Access: If the attacker has physical access to the machine, they could directly modify the file.
      2. Injecting Malicious Content: Once the attacker has write access, they can modify the configuration file to:
        • Add exec commands to run arbitrary shell scripts or binaries.
        • Change keybindings to execute malicious commands when specific keys are pressed.
        • Modify output settings to redirect screen contents to a remote server.
        • Disable security features or introduce other vulnerabilities.
      3. Triggering the Malicious Configuration: The attacker needs to ensure that Sway reloads the modified configuration file. This might happen automatically (e.g., on restart), or the attacker might need to trigger a reload manually (e.g., by sending a signal to Sway).
    • Likelihood: Medium
    • Impact: Very High (Full control over Sway's behavior, including the ability to execute arbitrary code.)
    • Effort: Low to Medium (Once access is gained, modifying the file is trivial.)
    • Skill Level: Novice to Intermediate
    • Detection Difficulty: Easy (if file integrity checks are in place; otherwise, Medium to Hard)

Attack Tree Path: 3. Leverage Sway Features Maliciously (High-Risk Path)

  • 3.3 Exploit "exec" Command (Critical Node): * Description: Sway's exec command allows users to execute arbitrary shell commands. This attack vector involves finding ways to inject malicious commands into the exec command, either through configuration manipulation or by exploiting other vulnerabilities that allow command injection. * Attack Steps:
    1. Injection Point: The attacker needs to find a way to inject their malicious command into a context where Sway will execute it via the exec command. This could be:
      • Configuration File: As described in 2.1, the attacker could modify the configuration file to include malicious exec commands.
      • IPC Vulnerability: If a vulnerability exists in Sway's IPC handling that allows command injection, the attacker could send a malicious IPC message containing the command.
      • Compromised IPC Client: If an attacker compromises an application that communicates with Sway via IPC, they could use that application to send an exec command.
      • Vulnerable Sway Feature: If any Sway feature takes user input and passes it to exec without proper sanitization, the attacker could exploit that feature.
    2. Command Execution: Once the malicious command is injected, Sway will execute it with the privileges of the Sway process.
    3. Post-Exploitation: After successful command execution, the attacker can perform various actions, such as:
      • Installing malware.
      • Exfiltrating data.
      • Establishing persistence.
      • Manipulating the user's system. * Likelihood: Medium * Impact: Very High (Arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the Sway process.) * Effort: Low to Medium (Once an injection point is found, executing the command is trivial.) * Skill Level: Intermediate * Detection Difficulty: Medium (Suspicious commands might be logged, but a sophisticated attacker could try to obfuscate their actions.)