CVE-2025-2886: Tough Tough Terminating Targets Role Delegations Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-v4wr-j3w6-mxqc
CVSS 4.2
CWE-670
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-2886 is a MODERATE (CVSS 4.2) tough terminating targets role delegations vulnerability (CWE-670: Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation) affecting Tough libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves tough terminating targets role delegations are not respected. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.20.0.

CVE-2025-2886 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-2886
GHSA Identifier GHSA-v4wr-j3w6-mxqc
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 4.2
CWE Classification CWE-670: Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation
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:H/A:N).

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 High (I:H)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2025-2886

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-2025-2886, 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-670: Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation, where the code contains a control flow path that does not reflect the algorithm that the path is intended to implement, leading to incorrect behavior any time this path is navigated. 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 Delegations are a mechanism defined by the TUF specification that allow multiple different identities to provide and sign content within a single repository. Terminating delegations and delegation priority give a TUF repository unambiguous control over how overlapping delegations are resolved. tough erroneously will not terminate a search as required, and will accept information from a lower-priority delegation that should have been ignored. ## Impact When interacting with TUF repositories that use delegations, the tough client could fetch targets owned by the incorrect role. An actor which had delegated ownership of a subset of a TUF repository could provide arbitrary contents to tough clients for targets owned by the delegating identity. 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-2025-2886 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-2025-2886?
CVE-2025-2886 is a security vulnerability in Tough involving tough terminating targets role delegations are not respected under CWE-670: Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation.
Which Tough versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.20.0 across affected packages: tough.
What version fixes CVE-2025-2886?
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-2025-2886?
CVE-2025-2886 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:H/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-2886?
CVE-2025-2886 is classified under CWE-670: Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation (The code contains a control flow path that does not reflect the algorithm that the path is intended to implement, leading to incorrect behavior any time this path is navigated.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2025-2886?
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-v4wr-j3w6-mxqc",
  "modified" : "2025-10-14T21:58:53Z",
  "published" : "2025-03-28T22:13:00Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-2886" ],
  "summary" : "tough terminating targets role delegations are not respected",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nDelegations are a mechanism defined by the TUF specification that allow multiple different identities to provide and sign content within a single repository. Terminating delegations and delegation priority give a TUF repository unambiguous control over how overlapping delegations are resolved. tough erroneously will not terminate a search as required, and will accept information from a lower-priority delegation that should have been ignored.\n\n## Impact\n\nWhen interacting with TUF repositories that use delegations, the tough client could fetch targets owned by the incorrect role. An actor which had delegated ownership of a subset of a TUF repository could provide arbitrary contents to tough clients for targets owned by the delegating identity.\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:H/A:N"
  }, {
    "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-v4wr-j3w6-mxqc"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-2886"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/commit/598111f88105a707ee68b0fa06c52da7176ea96a"
  }, {
    "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-670" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-03-28T22:13:00Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-03-27T23:15:35Z"
  }
}