CVE-2025-23208: Zotregistry.dev/zot Zot IdP Group Membership Revocation Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-c9p4-xwr9-rfhx
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CVSS 7.3
CWE-269
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-23208 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.3) zot idp group membership revocation vulnerability (CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management) affecting Zotregistry.dev/zot libraries in the Go ecosystem. The issue involves zot idp group membership revocation ignored. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.1.2.

CVE-2025-23208 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-23208
GHSA Identifier GHSA-c9p4-xwr9-rfhx
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.3
CWE Classification CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management
Affected Product Zotregistry.dev/zot
Package Ecosystem Go
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.3

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

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

How to Fix CVE-2025-23208

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

zotregistry.dev/zot fixed: 2.1.2 
Upgrade zotregistry.dev/zot to 2.1.2
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 zotregistry.dev/zot

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2025-23208, inspect your project dependencies for Zotregistry.dev/zot:

inspect dependencies for zotregistry.dev/zot

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Zotregistry.dev/zot in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.1.2), 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-269: Improper Privilege Management, where the product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. In Zotregistry.dev/zot, 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 The group data stored for users in the boltdb database (meta.db) is an append-list so group revocations/removals are ignored in the API. ### Details [SetUserGroups](https://github.com/project-zot/zot/blob/5e30fec65c49e3139907e2819ccb39b2e3bd784e/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go#L1665) is alled on login, but instead of replacing the group memberships, they are appended. This may be due to some conflict with the group definitions in the config file, but that wasn't obvious to me if it were the case. ### PoC Login with group claims, logout, remove the user from a group from at IdP and log in again, the API still grants access and the new list of groups is appended creating meaningless duplicate entries and no longer mathing the expected groups from the IdP. The behavior can be verified by seeing the API or UI still presenting images it should not or by viewing the data directly: `bbolt get meta.db UserData <user>`, eg: ![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3491cbd2-c7d9-414d-bc33-3efc35ed0582) Note this example also has duplicates due to group hierarchy changes that were left in the database. ### Impact Any Zot configuration that relies on group-based authorization will not respect group remove/revocation by an IdP.

CVE-2025-23208 Affected Zotregistry.dev/zot Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.1.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
zotregistry.dev/zot
golang/zotregistry.dev/zot
Go
< 2.1.2
2.1.2

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/project-zot/zot/security/advisories/GHSA-c9p4-xwr9-rfhx
NVD — CVE-2025-23208 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-23208
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/project-zot/zot/commit/002ac62d8a15bf0cba010b3ba7bde86f9837b613
Zotregistry.dev/zot Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/project-zot/zot
Zotregistry.dev/zot Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/project-zot/zot/blob/5e30fec65c49e3139907e2819ccb39b2e3bd784e/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go#L1665

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-23208?
CVE-2025-23208 is a security vulnerability in Zotregistry.dev/zot involving Zot IdP group membership revocation ignored under CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management.
Which Zotregistry.dev/zot versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.1.2 across affected packages: zotregistry.dev/zot.
What version fixes CVE-2025-23208?
Upgrading to 2.1.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is zotregistry.dev/zot affected?
Yes, zotregistry.dev/zot is affected in releases prior to 2.1.2. Upgrade your dependency to 2.1.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-23208?
CVE-2025-23208 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-23208?
CVE-2025-23208 is classified under CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management (The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.).
How can I check Go dependencies for CVE-2025-23208?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for zotregistry.dev/zot'. 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-c9p4-xwr9-rfhx",
  "modified" : "2025-01-21T18:31:05Z",
  "published" : "2025-01-17T22:02:26Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-23208" ],
  "summary" : "Zot IdP group membership revocation ignored",
  "details" : "### Summary\nThe group data stored for users in the boltdb database (meta.db) is an append-list so group revocations/removals are ignored in the API.\n\n### Details\n[SetUserGroups](https://github.com/project-zot/zot/blob/5e30fec65c49e3139907e2819ccb39b2e3bd784e/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go#L1665) is alled on login, but instead of replacing the group memberships, they are appended. This may be due to some conflict with the group definitions in the config file, but that wasn't obvious to me if it were the case.\n\n### PoC\nLogin with group claims, logout, remove the user from a group from at IdP and log in again, the API still grants access and the new list of groups is appended creating meaningless duplicate entries and no longer mathing the expected groups from the IdP. The behavior can be verified by seeing the API or UI still presenting images it should not or by viewing the data directly:  `bbolt get meta.db UserData <user>`, eg:\n\n![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3491cbd2-c7d9-414d-bc33-3efc35ed0582)\n\nNote this example also has duplicates due to group hierarchy changes that were left in the database.\n\n### Impact\nAny Zot configuration that relies on group-based authorization will not respect group remove/revocation by an IdP.\n",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "zotregistry.dev/zot"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.1.2"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.1.1"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/project-zot/zot/security/advisories/GHSA-c9p4-xwr9-rfhx"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-23208"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/project-zot/zot/commit/002ac62d8a15bf0cba010b3ba7bde86f9837b613"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/project-zot/zot"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/project-zot/zot/blob/5e30fec65c49e3139907e2819ccb39b2e3bd784e/pkg/meta/boltdb/boltdb.go#L1665"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-269" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-01-17T22:02:26Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-01-17T23:15:13Z"
  }
}