CVE-2026-6967: Tough Awslabs/tough Is Missing Delegated Metadata Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-4v58-8p28-2rq3
CVSS 5.9
CWE-345
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-6967 is a HIGH (CVSS 5.9) awslabs/tough is missing delegated metadata vulnerability (CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity) affecting Tough libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves awslabs/tough is missing delegated metadata validation. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.22.0, 0.15.0.

CVE-2026-6967 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-6967
GHSA Identifier GHSA-4v58-8p28-2rq3
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.9
CWE Classification CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity
Affected Product Tough
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.9

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

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

How to Fix CVE-2026-6967

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: 0.22.0
Upgrade tough to 0.22.0
tuftool fixed: 0.15.0
Upgrade tuftool to 0.15.0
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-2026-6967, 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 0.22.0), 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-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity, where the product does not sufficiently verify the origin or authenticity of data, in a way that causes it to accept invalid data. 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 Missing expiration, hash, and length enforcement in delegated metadata validation in awslabs/tough before tough-v0.22.0 allows remote authenticated users with delegated signing authority to bypass TUF specification integrity checks for delegated targets metadata and poison the local metadata cache, because load_delegations does not apply the same validation checks as the top-level targets metadata path. ### Impact The tough library, prior to 0.22.0, does not properly verify delegated target metadata. It allows someone with write access to the metadata to serve expired or otherwise invalid targets from a TUF repository which tough will then trust rather than reject. ### Impacted Versions: tough 0.9.0 through 0.21.x, tuftool through 0.14.x ### Patches This issue has been addressed in tough version 0.22.0 and tuftool version 0.15.0. We recommend upgrading to the latest version and ensuring any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes. ### Workarounds No workarounds to this issue are known. ### References * CVE-2026-6967 If there are any questions or comments about this advisory, please contact [AWS/Amazon] Security via the [vulnerability reporting page](https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting) or directly via email to [aws-security@amazon.com](mailto:aws-security@amazon.com). Please do not create a public GitHub issue. ### Acknowledgement Amazon Web Services Labs would like to thank Oleh Konko of 1seal for collaborating on this issue through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.

CVE-2026-6967 Affected Tough Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.22.00.15.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
tough
crates.io
≥ 0.9.0
< 0.22.0
0.22.0
tuftool
crates.io
< 0.15.0
0.15.0

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-6967?
CVE-2026-6967 is a security vulnerability in Tough involving awslabs/tough is Missing Delegated Metadata Validation under CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity.
Which Tough versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.22.0, 0.15.0 across affected packages: tough, tuftool.
What version fixes CVE-2026-6967?
Upgrading to 0.22.0, 0.15.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is tough affected?
Yes, tough is affected in releases prior to 0.22.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.22.0 or later.
Is tuftool affected?
Yes, tuftool is affected in releases prior to 0.15.0. Upgrade your dependency to 0.15.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-6967?
CVE-2026-6967 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.9 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-6967?
CVE-2026-6967 is classified under CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity (The product does not sufficiently verify the origin or authenticity of data, in a way that causes it to accept invalid data.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2026-6967?
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-4v58-8p28-2rq3",
  "modified" : "2026-05-05T18:46:48Z",
  "published" : "2026-05-05T18:46:48Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-6967" ],
  "summary" : "awslabs/tough is Missing Delegated Metadata Validation",
  "details" : "### Summary\nMissing expiration, hash, and length enforcement in delegated metadata validation in awslabs/tough before tough-v0.22.0 allows remote authenticated users with delegated signing authority to bypass TUF specification integrity checks for delegated targets metadata and poison the local metadata cache, because load_delegations does not apply the same validation checks as the top-level targets metadata path.\n\n### Impact\nThe tough library, prior to 0.22.0, does not properly verify delegated target metadata. It allows someone with write access to the metadata to serve expired or otherwise invalid targets from a TUF repository which tough will then trust rather than reject.\n\n### Impacted Versions: \ntough 0.9.0 through 0.21.x, tuftool through 0.14.x\n\n### Patches\nThis issue has been addressed in tough version 0.22.0 and tuftool version 0.15.0. We recommend upgrading to the latest version and ensuring any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes. \n\n### Workarounds\nNo workarounds to this issue are known.\n\n### References\n* CVE-2026-6967\nIf there are any questions or comments about this advisory, please contact [AWS/Amazon] Security via the [vulnerability reporting page](https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting) or directly via email to [aws-security@amazon.com](mailto:aws-security@amazon.com). Please do not create a public GitHub issue.\n\n### Acknowledgement\n\nAmazon Web Services Labs would like to thank Oleh Konko of 1seal for collaborating on this issue through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:L"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "tough"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
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    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
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    },
    "ranges" : [ {
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      }, {
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    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/security/advisories/GHSA-4v58-8p28-2rq3"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-6967"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/2026-019-aws"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://crates.io/crates/tough/0.22.0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://crates.io/crates/tuftool/0.15.0"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/releases/tag/tough-v0.22.0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/awslabs/tough/releases/tag/tuftool-v0.15.0"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-345" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-05-05T18:46:48Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-04-24T20:16:29Z"
  }
}