GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5
MEDIUMGHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-522 vulnerability in github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
malcontent OCI image pull credential exfiltration via malicious registry token realm
Blast Radius
github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontentReal-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
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.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent | ≥ 0.10.0&&< 1.20.3 | 1.20.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent. 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/chainguard-dev/malcontent to 1.20.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 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-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 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-9m43-p3cx-w8j5. 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-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.