GHSA-rh99-wc69-c255
HIGHContras Affected by CopyFile Policy Subversion via Symlinks
Blast Radius
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Description
Impact
The Kata agent policies generated by the Contrast CLI had an issue in the CopyFile verification, which allowed arbitrary writes to the guest root filesytem. A malicious process on the host with the capability to connect to the Kata agent VSOCK could connect to the agent and issue a series of CopyFile requests to overwrite security-critical files or trick the workload into disclosing sensitive data, which effectively amounts to a full guest takeover.
Patches
This issue has been patched in Contrast v1.19.1.
Note that this fix does not change the fact that host-provided content is generally not trustworthy, as documented.
Workarounds
If upgrading is not possible, users can implement the fix in rego and pass it to contrast generate --policy. The rego-only fix is a bit trickier than the patch, because the data to check is binary. See the references for details.
Resources
- Upstream GHSA: https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-q49m-57vm-c8cc
- Alternative policy-only fix: https://gist.github.com/burgerdev/304dd0ab0fff1665b7c27e18a30cf96e
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/edgelesssys/contrast | all versions | 1.19.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/edgelesssys/contrast. 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/edgelesssys/contrast to 1.19.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-rh99-wc69-c255 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-rh99-wc69-c255 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-rh99-wc69-c255. 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-rh99-wc69-c255 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-rh99-wc69-c255 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.