GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8 Contrast's unauthenticated recovery allows Coordinator impersonation
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/edgelesssys/contrast
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-285
- Reviewed
- 2025-02-05
Affected packages
• Go github.com/edgelesssys/contrast: < 1.4.1 → fixed in 1.4.1
Description
Impact
Recovering coordinators do not verify the seed provided by the recovering party. This allows an attacker to set up a coordinator with a manifest that passes validation, but with a secret seed controlled by the attacker.
If network traffic is redirected from the legitimate coordinator to the attacker's coordinator, a workload owner is susceptible to impersonation if either
• they `set` a new manifest and don't compare the root CA cert with the existing one (this is the default of the `contrast` CLI) or
• they `verify` the coordinator and don't compare the root CA cert with a trusted reference.
Under these circumstances, the attacker can:
• Issue certificates that chain back to the attacker coordinator's root CA.
• Recover arbitrary workload secrets of workloads deployed after the attack.
This issue does not affect the following:
• secrets of the legitimate coordinator (seed, workload secrets, CA)
• integrity of workloads, even when used with the rogue coordinator
• certificates chaining back to the mesh CA
Patches
This issue is patched in Contrast v1.4.1.
Workarounds
The issue can be avoided by verifying the coordinator root CA cert against expectations.
• At the first `set` call, keep a copy of the CA cert returned by the coordinator.
• After subsequent `set` or `verify` calls, compare the returned CA cert with the backup copy. If it matches bit-for-bit, the coordinator is legitimate.
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-285 Improper Authorization weakness