CVE-2025-24976

Distribution's token authentication allows attacker to inject an untrusted signing key in a JWT

MEDIUM
6.6
CVSS Score
Published: February 11, 2025 at 03:48 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 08:59 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorDistribution

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Severity
MEDIUM6.6
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Distribution is a toolkit to pack, ship, store, and deliver container content. Systems running registry versions 3.0.0-beta.1 through 3.0.0-rc.2 with token authentication enabled may be vulnerable to an issue in which token authentication allows an attacker to inject an untrusted signing key in a JSON web token (JWT). The issue lies in how the JSON web key (JWK) verification is performed. When a JWT contains a JWK header without a certificate chain, the code only checks if the KeyID (`kid`) matches one of the trusted keys, but doesn't verify that the actual key material matches. A fix for the issue is available at commit 5ea9aa028db65ca5665f6af2c20ecf9dc34e5fcd and expected to be a part of version 3.0.0-rc.3. There is no way to work around this issue without patching if the system requires token authentication.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v ≤ 3.0.0-rc.2

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

6.6MEDIUMGitHub_M
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-639

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