Rekor has an OOM Condition due to Unbounded gzip Decompression in Alpine APK Parsing Logic
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 3 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
Rekor is a software supply chain transparency log. Starting in version 0.3.0 and prior to version 1.5.2, the `Package.Unmarshal()` function in `pkg/types/alpine/apk.go` decompresses the signature and control gzip members of an APK file into in-memory buffers without bounding the total decompressed size. The existing `max_apk_metadata_size` check (default 1MB) is only applied to individual tar entry header sizes after decompression completes, so it does not prevent a decompression bomb from consuming unbounded heap memory. An attacker can craft a gzip stream that compresses at a ~1000:1 ratio (e.g., 2MB compressed zeros → 2GB decompressed). When submitted as spec.package.content in an Alpine `ProposedEntry`, the server decompresses the full payload into memory during request processing, triggering a fatal Go runtime out-of-memory error or OS OOM-kill that cannot be caught by the server's recover() middleware. This is reachable via two unauthenticated endpoints, `POST /api/v1/log/entries (createLogEntry)` and `POST /api/v1/log/entries/retrieve (searchLogQuery)`. Both invoke `V001Entry.Canonicalize()` → `fetchExternalEntities()` → `apk.Unmarshal(packageData)`, which performs the unbounded decompression. Version 1.5.2 patches the issue. There is no effective workaround. Setting `max_request_body_size` reduces but does not eliminate exposure due to the ~1000:1 compression ratio (a 1MB body limit still allows ~1GB heap allocation). Setting `max_apk_metadata_size` has no effect on this vulnerability since the check is applied after decompression.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sigstore | rekor | 0.3.0 to before 1.5.2 | 1.5.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/sigstore/rekor (Go) | 0.3.0 to before 1.5.2 | 1.5.2 | Patch available | GHSA-47q9-m4ww-924m |
- rekor Vendorsigstore Affected 0.3.0 to before 1.5.2 Fixed in 1.5.2 Patch available CNA
- github.com/sigstore/rekor (Go) Vendor— Affected 0.3.0 to before 1.5.2 Fixed in 1.5.2 Patch available GHSA-47q9-m4ww-924m
Remediation
- Fix · CNA rekor (sigstore) Fixed in 1.5.2
- Fix · GHSA-47q9-m4ww-924m github.com/sigstore/rekor (Go) Fixed in 1.5.2 Advisory →
Red Hat 4 advisories
- RHSA-2026:59439 Released 2026-08-25 · Red Hat rating ImportantRHTAS 1.3.7 - Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer Release
- Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.3 registry.redhat.io/rhtas/certificate-transparency-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhtas/fulcio-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhtas/rekor-backfill-redis-rhel9 +5
- RHSA-2026:50873 Released 2026-08-05 · Red Hat rating ImportantRHTAS 1.4.3 - Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer Release
- Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.4 registry.redhat.io/rhtas/fulcio-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhtas/rekor-backfill-redis-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhtas/rekor-search-ui-rhel9 +2
- RHSA-2026:35111 Released 2026-07-02 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images trivy-0.72.0-0.1.hum1@aarch64, trivy-0.72.0-0.1.hum1@src, trivy-0.72.0-0.1.hum1@x86_64
Show 1 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2026:25138 Released 2026-06-10 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images cosign-3.1.1-0.1.hum1@aarch64, cosign-3.1.1-0.1.hum1@src, cosign-3.1.1-0.1.hum1@x86_64
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:25138, RHSA-2026:35111 |
| Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.3 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:59439 |
| Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:50873 |
Not affected: 38 products
- Assisted Installer for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 2
- Confidential Compute Attestation
- Lightspeed Core
- Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift
- Logical Volume Manager Storage
- Migration Toolkit for Containers
- Migration Toolkit for Virtualization
- Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes
- Node HealthCheck Operator
- OpenShift API for Data Protection
- OpenShift Developer Tools and Services
- OpenShift Lightspeed
- OpenShift Pipelines
- OpenShift Serverless
- OpenShift Service Mesh 3
- Pen Drive Powered by Red Hat Lightspeed
- Power monitoring for Red Hat OpenShift
- Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2
- Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2
- Red Hat Developer Hub 1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
- Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
- Red Hat OpenShift GitOps
- Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4
- Red Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0
- Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4
- Red Hat Quay 3
- Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer
- Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.3
- Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer 1.4
- Security Profiles Operator
- Zero Trust Workload Identity Manager
- Zero Trust Workload Identity Manager - Tech Preview
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-48702
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-47q9-m4ww-924m
- 2026-10-27 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-30 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
More sigstore vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-16356 False positive signature verification in cosign CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-36084 sigstore-js: `certificateOIDs` verification constraints are silently dropped and never enforced CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2024-19670 Cosign vulnerable to machine-wide denial of service via malicious artifacts CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-18290 Fulcio vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) via MetaIssuer Regex Bypass CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.8
- TI-2026-36085 sigstore-js: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2024-19669 Cosign vulnerable to system-wide denial of service via malicious attachments CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.9
Sources
- CVE-2026-48702 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-48702 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-47q9-m4ww-924m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-48702 · 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