CVE-2025-2888: Tough Tough Timestamp Metadata Is Cached Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-76g3-38jv-wxh4
CVSS 4.2
CWE-1025
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-2888 is a MODERATE (CVSS 4.2) tough timestamp metadata is cached vulnerability (CWE-1025: Comparison Using Wrong Factors) affecting Tough libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves tough timestamp metadata is cached when it fails snapshot rollback check. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.20.0.

CVE-2025-2888 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-2888
GHSA Identifier GHSA-76g3-38jv-wxh4
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 4.2
CWE Classification CWE-1025: Comparison Using Wrong Factors
Affected Product Tough
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 4.2

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity High (AC:H)
Privileges Required High (PR:H)
User Interaction Required (UI:R)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2025-2888

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Tough dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

tough fixed: 0.20.0
Upgrade tough to 0.20.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for tough

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2025-2888, inspect your project dependencies for Tough:

inspect dependencies for tough

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Tough in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.20.0), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-1025: Comparison Using Wrong Factors, where the code performs a comparison between two entities, but the comparison examines the wrong factors or characteristics of the entities, which can lead to incorrect results and resultant weaknesses. In Tough, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

## Summary TUF repositories use the timestamp role to protect against rollback events by enabling an automated process to periodically sign the role's metadata. While tough will ensure that the version of snapshot metadata in new timestamp metadata files was always greater than or equal to the previously trusted version, it will only do so after persisting the timestamp metadata to its cache. ## Impact If the tough client successfully detects a rollback event in which timestamp metadata contains outdated snapshot metadata, the invalid timestamp metadata will still be persisted to cache as trusted. tough may then subsequently incorrectly identify valid timestamp metadata as being rolled back, preventing the client from consuming valid updates. Impacted versions: < v0.20.0 ## Patches A fix for this issue is available in tough version 0.20.0 and later. Customers are advised to upgrade to version 0.20.0 or later and ensure any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes. ## Workarounds There is no recommended work around. Customers are advised to upgrade to version 0.20.0 or the latest version. ## References If you have any questions or comments about this advisory we ask that you contact AWS/Amazon Security via our vulnerability reporting page [1] or directly via email to [aws-security@amazon.com](mailto:aws-security@amazon.com). Please do not create a public GitHub issue. [1] Vulnerability reporting page: https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting ## Acknowledgement These issues were identified by the [TUF-Conformance project](https://github.com/theupdateframework/tuf-conformance). We would like to thank Google for collaborating on this issue through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.

CVE-2025-2888 Affected Tough Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.20.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
tough
crates.io
< 0.20.0
0.20.0

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-2888?
CVE-2025-2888 is a security vulnerability in Tough involving tough timestamp metadata is cached when it fails snapshot rollback check under CWE-1025: Comparison Using Wrong Factors.
Which Tough versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.20.0 across affected packages: tough.
What version fixes CVE-2025-2888?
Upgrading to 0.20.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is tough affected?
Yes, tough is affected in releases prior to 0.20.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.20.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-2888?
CVE-2025-2888 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.2 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-2888?
CVE-2025-2888 is classified under CWE-1025: Comparison Using Wrong Factors (The code performs a comparison between two entities, but the comparison examines the wrong factors or characteristics of the entities, which can lead to incorrect results and resultant weaknesses.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2025-2888?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for tough'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-76g3-38jv-wxh4",
  "modified" : "2025-10-14T21:59:01Z",
  "published" : "2025-03-28T14:49:47Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-2888" ],
  "summary" : "tough timestamp metadata is cached when it fails snapshot rollback check",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nTUF repositories use the timestamp role to protect against rollback events by enabling an automated process to periodically sign the role's metadata. While tough will ensure that the version of snapshot metadata in new timestamp metadata files was always greater than or equal to the previously trusted version, it will only do so after persisting the timestamp metadata to its cache.\n\n## Impact\n\nIf the tough client successfully detects a rollback event in which timestamp metadata contains outdated snapshot metadata, the invalid timestamp metadata will still be persisted to cache as trusted. tough may then subsequently incorrectly identify valid timestamp metadata as being rolled back, preventing the client from consuming valid updates.\n\nImpacted versions: < v0.20.0\n\n## Patches\n\nA fix for this issue is available in tough version 0.20.0 and later. Customers are advised to upgrade to version 0.20.0 or later and ensure any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.\n\n## Workarounds\n\nThere is no recommended work around. Customers are advised to upgrade to version 0.20.0 or the latest version.\n\n## References\n\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory we ask that you contact AWS/Amazon Security via our vulnerability reporting page [1] or directly via email to [aws-security@amazon.com](mailto:aws-security@amazon.com). Please do not create a public GitHub issue.\n\n\n[1] Vulnerability reporting page: https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting\n\n## Acknowledgement\n\nThese issues were identified by the [TUF-Conformance project](https://github.com/theupdateframework/tuf-conformance). We would like to thank Google for collaborating on this issue through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "tough"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.20.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/security/advisories/GHSA-76g3-38jv-wxh4"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-2888"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/commit/9b400e1c8b7d6b9ab8009104fa7fe5884db05f18"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2025-007"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/releases/tag/tough-v0.20.0"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1025" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-03-28T14:49:47Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-03-27T23:15:35Z"
  }
}