GHSA-jfc7-64v2-mr8c
MEDIUM@sigstore/core has DSSE payloadType type-binding failure
Blast Radius
Weekly download volume for affected packages — a proxy for how broadly this vulnerability is deployed.
@sigstore/corenpmDescription
Impact
The preAuthEncoding function in @sigstore/core uses Node.js 'ascii' encoding when converting the PAE (Pre-Authentication Encoding) string to bytes. This allows payloadType to be mutated after signing without invalidating the signature, breaking the type-binding guarantee that DSSE is designed to provide.
In packages/core/src/dsse.ts, the PAE function builds a string containing payloadType and then encodes it with Buffer.from(prefix, 'ascii').
In Node.js, 'ascii' encoding for string-to-Buffer is equivalent to 'latin1', which truncates characters above U+00FF to their low byte. This means for any ASCII character, there exist Unicode characters (at U+01xx, U+02xx, etc.) that produce the identical encoded byte:
| Original | Codepoint | Mutant | Codepoint | Encoded byte |
|---|---|---|---|---|
t | U+0074 | Ŵ | U+0174 | 0x74 |
e | U+0065 | ť | U+0165 | 0x65 |
An attacker can substitute every character in payloadType with a Unicode variant whose low byte matches, producing identical PAE bytes and a passing signature verification.
Additionally, payloadType.length returns the JavaScript string length (UTF-16 code units) rather than the UTF-8 byte length required by the DSSE spec, though this is only a contributing factor for non-ASCII types.
Reproduction
const { preAuthEncoding } = require('@sigstore/core/dist/dsse.js');
const payload = Buffer.from('hello world');
const original = preAuthEncoding('text/plain', payload);
// U+01xx chars whose low bytes match the original ASCII chars
const mutant = preAuthEncoding('\u0174\u0165\u0178\u0174/\u0170\u016c\u0161\u0169\u016e', payload);
console.log('PAE bytes equal:', original.equals(mutant)); // true — should be false
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @sigstore/core | all versions | 3.2.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @sigstore/core. 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 @sigstore/core to 3.2.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-jfc7-64v2-mr8c 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-jfc7-64v2-mr8c 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-jfc7-64v2-mr8c. 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-jfc7-64v2-mr8c in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-jfc7-64v2-mr8c across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.