Unbounded memory allocation in Quill via unvalidated size fields in Mach-O binary parsing
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
Quill provides simple mac binary signing and notarization from any platform. Quill before version v0.7.1 contains an unbounded memory allocation vulnerability when parsing Mach-O binaries. Exploitation requires that Quill processes an attacker-supplied Mach-O binary, which is most likely in environments such as CI/CD pipelines, shared signing services, or any workflow where externally-submitted binaries are accepted for signing. When parsing a Mach-O binary, Quill reads several size and count fields from the LC_CODE_SIGNATURE load command and embedded code signing structures (SuperBlob, BlobIndex) and uses them to allocate memory buffers without validating that the values are reasonable or consistent with the actual file size. Affected fields include DataSize, DataOffset, and Size from the load command, Count from the SuperBlob header, and Length from individual blob headers. An attacker can craft a minimal (~4KB) malicious Mach-O binary with extremely large values in these fields, causing Quill to attempt to allocate excessive memory. This leads to memory exhaustion and denial of service, potentially crashing the host process. Both the Quill CLI and Go library are affected when used to parse untrusted Mach-O files. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.7.1.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| anchore | quill | before 0.7.1 | 0.7.1 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/anchore/quill (Go) | before 0.7.1 | 0.7.1 | Patch available | GHSA-xj69-m9qq-8m94 |
- quill Vendoranchore Affected before 0.7.1 Fixed in 0.7.1 Patch available CNA
- github.com/anchore/quill (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.7.1 Fixed in 0.7.1 Patch available GHSA-xj69-m9qq-8m94
Remediation
- Fix · CNA quill (anchore) Fixed in 0.7.1
- Fix · GHSA-xj69-m9qq-8m94 github.com/anchore/quill (Go) Fixed in 0.7.1 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-31961
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-xj69-m9qq-8m94
References
Advisory 2
More anchore Quill vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-24504 DoS in Quill via unbounded read of HTTP response body during notarization CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
- TI-2026-24503 SSRF in Quill via unvalidated URL from Apple notarization log retrieval CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
Sources
- CVE-2026-31961 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-31961 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-xj69-m9qq-8m94 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-31961 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences