Crossplane's TOCTOU between cosign verification and image fetch in xpkg.CachedClient…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- —
- Privileges required
- —
- User interaction
- —
- Attack complexity
- —
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- —
- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub. Impact type from CWE-345.
Summary
## Summary Crossplane allows package signature verification to be configured via the `ImageConfig` mechanism. When enabled, the package manager uses cosign to verify that packages are correctly signed before pulling and installing them. When a package is installed using a tag reference (e.g., a semantic version), a malicious OCI registry could serve a correctly signed image for verification, then subsequently serve an unsigned image for installation. This is possible because Crossplane resolves the tag reference separately for each step. This vulnerability is relevant only for users who do all three of the following: 1. Configure signature verification for packages, 2. Install packages using tag references rather than digests, and 3. Install packages from registries they do not control. ## Mitigation Installing packages by image digest rather than using tags avoids this issue. ## Fix The package manager has been updated to resolve tag references once and use the resulting digest for both signature verification and image fetching. This ensures that Crossplane pulls the same content that had its signature verified. The fix has been applied to Crossplane's `main` branch and backported to the v2.3 and v2.2 release branches; it will be released in v2.3.3 and v2.2.3. ## Credits This issue was reported, independently, by @bugbunny-research and @tonghuaroot.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) | 2.4.0-rc.0 to before 2.4.0-rc.1 | 2.4.0-rc.1 | Patch available | GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94 |
| — | github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) | 2.3.0 to before 2.3.3 | 2.3.3 | Patch available | GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94 |
- github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) Vendor— Affected 2.4.0-rc.0 to before 2.4.0-rc.1 Fixed in 2.4.0-rc.1 Patch available GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94
- github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) Vendor— Affected 2.3.0 to before 2.3.3 Fixed in 2.3.3 Patch available GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94 github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) Fixed in 2.4.0-rc.1 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94 github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime/v2 (Go) Fixed in 2.3.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-mf7q-r4rv-jv94
References
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences