CVE-2023-24827 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in github.com/anchore/syft. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for github.com/anchore/syft — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Credential disclosure in syft when SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable set in syft
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-24827.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-24827 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/anchore/syftReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A password disclosure flaw was found in Syft versions v0.69.0 and v0.69.1. This flaw leaks the password stored in the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable.
Impact
The SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable is for the syft attest command to generate attested SBOMs for the given container image. This environment variable is used to decrypt the private key (provided with syft attest --key <path-to-key-file>) during the signing process while generating an SBOM attestation.
This vulnerability affects users running syft that have the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable set with credentials (regardless of if the attest command is being used or not). Users that do not have the environment variable SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD set are not affected by this issue.
The credentials are leaked in two ways:
- in the syft logs when
-vvor-vvvare used in the syft command (which is any log level >=DEBUG) - in the attestation or SBOM only when the
syft-jsonformat is used
Note that as of v0.69.0 any generated attestations by the syft attest command are uploaded to the OCI registry (if you have write access to that registry) in the same way cosign attach is done. This means that any attestations generated for the affected versions of syft when the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable was set would leak credentials in the attestation payload uploaded to the OCI registry.
Example commands run from affected versions of syft that show the credential disclosure:
$ SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD=123456 syft <container-image-or-directory-input> -o syft-json | grep 123456
# "123456" is in the output
$ SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD=123456 syft attest <container-image-input> -o syft-json
$ cosign download attestation <container-image-input> | jq -r '.payload' | base64 -d | grep 123456
# "123456" is in the output
Patches
The patch has been released in v0.70.0.
Workarounds
There are no workarounds for this vulnerability.
References
Patch pull request: https://github.com/anchore/syft/pull/1538
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/anchore/syft | ≥ 0.69.0&&< 0.70.0 | 0.70.0go get github.com/anchore/syft@v0.70.0 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/anchore/syft, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/anchore/syft to 0.70.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-24827 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-24827 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-24827. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-24827 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-24827 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.