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malcontent OCI image pull credential exfiltration via malicious registry token realm

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 29, 2026 in chainguard-dev/malcontent • Updated Jan 31, 2026

Package

github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent (Go)

Affected versions

>= 0.10.0, < 1.20.3

Patched versions

1.20.3

Description

Malcontent could be made to expose Docker registry credentials if it scanned a specially crafted OCI image reference. Malcontent uses google/go-containerregistry for OCI image pulls, which by default uses the Docker credential keychain. A malicious registry could return a WWW-Authenticate header redirecting token authentication to an attacker-controlled endpoint, causing credentials to be sent to that endpoint.

Fix: Default to anonymous auth for OCI pulls

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Oleh Konko from 1seal for discovering and reporting this issue.

References

@eslerm eslerm published to chainguard-dev/malcontent Jan 29, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 29, 2026
Reviewed Jan 29, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jan 29, 2026
Last updated Jan 31, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(5th percentile)

Weaknesses

Insufficiently Protected Credentials

The product transmits or stores authentication credentials, but it uses an insecure method that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-24845

GHSA ID

GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5

Source code

Credits

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