GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-347 vulnerability in tuf. A fix is available for tuf — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Incorrect threshold signature computation in TUF
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
GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 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 377,166 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
tufReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Metadadata signature verification, as used in tuf.client.updater, counted each of multiple signatures with identical authorized keyids separately towards the threshold. Therefore, an attacker with access to a valid signing key could create multiple valid signatures in order to meet the minimum threshold of keys before the metadata was considered valid.
The tuf maintainers would like to thank Erik MacLean of Analog Devices, Inc. for reporting this issue.
Patches
A fix is available in version 0.12.2 or newer.
Workarounds
No workarounds are known for this issue.
References
- CVE-2020-6174
- Pull request resolving the issue PR 974
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | tuf | all versions | 0.12.2pip install --upgrade 'tuf==0.12.2' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tuf, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tuf to 0.12.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 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 GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8. 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-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-pwqf-9h7j-7mv8 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.