GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 is a low-severity (CVSS 3) remote code execution vulnerability in github.com/containerd/containerd. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Ambiguous OCI manifest parsing
Real-World Exposure
github.com/containerd/containerd🐹github.com/containerd/containerdReal-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
Impact
In the OCI Distribution Specification version 1.0.0 and prior and in the OCI Image Specification version 1.0.1 and prior, manifest and index documents are ambiguous without an accompanying Content-Type HTTP header. Versions of containerd prior to 1.4.12 and 1.5.8 treat the Content-Type header as trusted and deserialize the document according to that header. If the Content-Type header changed between pulls of the same ambiguous document (with the same digest), the document may be interpreted differently, meaning that the digest alone is insufficient to unambiguously identify the content of the image.
Patches
This issue has been fixed in containerd 1.4.12 and 1.5.8. Image pulls for manifests that contain a “manifests” field or indices which contain a “layers” field are rejected.
Workarounds
Ensure you only pull images from trusted sources.
References
https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/security/advisories/GHSA-mc8v-mgrf-8f4m https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/security/advisories/GHSA-77vh-xpmg-72qh
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in containerd
- Email us at [email protected]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/containerd | all versions | 1.4.12 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/containerd | ≥ 1.5.0&&< 1.5.8 | 1.5.8 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/containerd/containerd. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/containerd/containerd to 1.4.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-5j5w-g665-5m35 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.