GHSA-8v99-48m9-c8pm
HIGHIncorrect Authorization in imgcrypt
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.
Blast Radius
github.com/containerd/imgcryptReal-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
Imgcrypt implements a function CheckAuthorization() that is supposed to check whether a user is authorized to access an encrypted image given the keys that the user has provided on the command line that would enable decryption of the image. The check is to prevent that a user can start a container from an image that has previously been decrypted by another user on the same system and therefore a decrypted version of the image layers may be already available in the cache locally.
The failure occurs when an image with a ManifestList is used and the architecture of the local host is not the first one in the ManifestList. In the version prior to the fix, only the first architecture in the list was tested, which may not have its layers available locally (were not pulled) since it cannot be run on the host architecture. Therefore, the verdict on unavailable layers was that the image could be run anticipating that image run failure would occur later due to the layers not being available. However, this verdict to allow the image to run lead to other architectures in the ManifestList be able to run an image without providing keys if that image had previously been decrypted. The fixed version now skips over irrelevant architectures and tests the Manifest of the local architecture, if available.
Known projects that use the CheckAuthorization() of imgcrypt is for example the ctr-enc client tool provided by imgcrypt. In this implementation, the call to CheckAuthorization() is used on the client side and could therefore also be easily circumvented by a modified client tool not calling this function.
In relation to the vulnerability in ctr-enc, affected environments would have to allow different users to invoke ctr-enc indirectly using some sort of management stack that gives user indirect access to ctr-enc.
The patch has been applied to imgcrypt v1.1.4. Workarounds may include usage of different namespaces for each remote user.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/imgcrypt | all versions | 1.1.4 |
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/containerd/imgcrypt. 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/imgcrypt to 1.1.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-8v99-48m9-c8pm 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-8v99-48m9-c8pm 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-8v99-48m9-c8pm. 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-8v99-48m9-c8pm in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-8v99-48m9-c8pm across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.