CVE-2023-46737: Github.com/sigstore/cosign Cosign Vulnerable To Possible Endless Vulnerability

LOW
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-vfp6-jrw2-99g9
CVSS 3.1
CWE-400 CWE-835
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-46737 is a LOW (CVSS 3.1) cosign vulnerable to possible endless vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Github.com/sigstore/cosign libraries in the Go ecosystem. The issue involves cosign vulnerable to possible endless data attack from attacker-controlled registry. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.13.2, 2.2.1.

CVE-2023-46737 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-46737
GHSA Identifier GHSA-vfp6-jrw2-99g9
Severity LOW
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 3.1
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Github.com/sigstore/cosign
Package Ecosystem Go
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 3.1

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

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

How to Fix CVE-2023-46737

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

github.com/sigstore/cosign fixed: 1.13.2
Upgrade github.com/sigstore/cosign to 1.13.2
github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2 fixed: 2.2.1
Upgrade github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2 to 2.2.1
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 github.com/sigstore/cosign

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2023-46737, inspect your project dependencies for Github.com/sigstore/cosign:

inspect dependencies for github.com/sigstore/cosign

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Github.com/sigstore/cosign in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.13.2), 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-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Github.com/sigstore/cosign, 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 Cosign is susceptible to a denial of service by an attacker controlled registry. An attacker who controls a remote registry can return a high number of attestations and/or signatures to Cosign and cause Cosign to enter a long loop resulting in an endless data attack. The root cause is that Cosign loops through all attestations fetched from the remote registry in `pkg/cosign.FetchAttestations`. The attacker needs to compromise the registry or make a request to a registry they control. When doing so, the attacker must return a high number of attestations in the response to Cosign. The result will be that the attacker can cause Cosign to go into a long or infinite loop that will prevent other users from verifying their data. In Kyvernos case, an attacker whose privileges are limited to making requests to the cluster can make a request with an image reference to their own registry, trigger the infinite loop and deny other users from completing their admission requests. Alternatively, the attacker can obtain control of the registry used by an organization and return a high number of attestations instead the expected number of attestations. The vulnerable loop in Cosign starts on line 154 below: https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/blob/004443228442850fb28f248fd59765afad99b6df/pkg/cosign/fetch.go#L135-L196 The `l` slice is controllable by an attacker who controls the remote registry. Many cloud-native projects consider the remote registry to be untrusted, including Crossplane, Notary and Kyverno. We consider the same to be the case for Cosign, since users are not in control of whether the registry returns the expected data. TUF's security model labels this type of vulnerability an ["Endless data attack"](https://theupdateframework.io/security/), but an attacker could use this as a type of rollback attack, in case the user attempts to deploy a patched version of a vulnerable image; The attacker could prevent this upgrade by causing Cosign to get stuck in an infinite loop and never complete. ### Mitigation The issue can be mitigated rather simply by setting a limit to the limit of attestations that Cosign will loop through. The limit does not need to be high to be within the vast majority of use cases and still prevent the endless data attack.

CVE-2023-46737 Affected Github.com/sigstore/cosign Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
1.13.22.2.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
github.com/sigstore/cosign
Go
< 1.13.2
1.13.2
github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2
Go
< 2.2.1
2.2.1

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-46737?
CVE-2023-46737 is a security vulnerability in Github.com/sigstore/cosign involving Cosign vulnerable to possible endless data attack from attacker-controlled registry under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Github.com/sigstore/cosign versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 1.13.2, 2.2.1 across affected packages: github.com/sigstore/cosign, github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2.
What version fixes CVE-2023-46737?
Upgrading to 1.13.2, 2.2.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is github.com/sigstore/cosign affected?
Yes, github.com/sigstore/cosign is affected in releases prior to 1.13.2. Upgrade your dependency to 1.13.2 or later.
Is github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2 affected?
Yes, github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2 is affected in releases prior to 2.2.1. Upgrade your dependency to 2.2.1 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-46737?
CVE-2023-46737 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 3.1 (LOW) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-46737?
CVE-2023-46737 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check Go dependencies for CVE-2023-46737?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for github.com/sigstore/cosign'. 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-vfp6-jrw2-99g9",
  "modified" : "2023-11-08T15:02:51Z",
  "published" : "2023-11-08T15:02:51Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-46737" ],
  "summary" : "Cosign vulnerable to possible endless data attack from attacker-controlled registry",
  "details" : "### Summary\nCosign is susceptible to a denial of service by an attacker controlled registry. An attacker who controls a remote registry can return a high number of attestations and/or signatures to Cosign and cause Cosign to enter a long loop resulting in an endless data attack. The root cause is that Cosign loops through all attestations fetched from the remote registry in `pkg/cosign.FetchAttestations`.\n\nThe attacker needs to compromise the registry or make a request to a registry they control. When doing so, the attacker must return a high number of attestations in the response to Cosign. The result will be that the attacker can cause Cosign to go into a long or infinite loop that will prevent other users from verifying their data. In Kyvernos case, an attacker whose privileges are limited to making requests to the cluster can make a request with an image reference to their own registry, trigger the infinite loop and deny other users from completing their admission requests. Alternatively, the attacker can obtain control of the registry used by an organization and return a high number of attestations instead the expected number of attestations.\n\nThe vulnerable loop in Cosign starts on line 154 below:\nhttps://github.com/sigstore/cosign/blob/004443228442850fb28f248fd59765afad99b6df/pkg/cosign/fetch.go#L135-L196\n\nThe `l` slice is controllable by an attacker who controls the remote registry.\n\nMany cloud-native projects consider the remote registry to be untrusted, including Crossplane, Notary and Kyverno. We consider the same to be the case for Cosign, since users are not in control of whether the registry returns the expected data.\n\nTUF's security model labels this type of vulnerability an [\"Endless data attack\"](https://theupdateframework.io/security/), but an attacker could use this as a type of rollback attack, in case the user attempts to deploy a patched version of a vulnerable image; The attacker could prevent this upgrade by causing Cosign to get stuck in an infinite loop and never complete.\n\n### Mitigation\nThe issue can be mitigated rather simply by setting a limit to the limit of attestations that Cosign will loop through. The limit does not need to be high to be within the vast majority of use cases and still prevent the endless data attack.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "github.com/sigstore/cosign"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.13.2"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 1.13.1"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.2.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/security/advisories/GHSA-vfp6-jrw2-99g9"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46737"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/pull/3364"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/commit/8ac891ff0e29ddc67965423bee8f826219c6eb0f"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/releases/tag/v1.13.2"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/releases/tag/v2.2.1"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400", "CWE-835" ],
    "severity" : "LOW",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-11-08T15:02:51Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-11-07T18:15:09Z"
  }
}