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.
https://github.com/distribution/distribution/security/advisories/GHSA-phw4-mc57-4hwc
https://github.com/distribution/distribution/commit/f4a500caf68169dccb0b54cb90523e68ee1ac2be
Published: 2025-02-11
Updated: 2026-04-15
Base Score: 6.4
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
Severity: Medium
Base Score: 9.1
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Severity: Critical
Base Score: 8.7
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: High
EPSS: 0.00049