GHSA-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj
MEDIUMTrivy possibly leaks registry credential when scanning images from malicious registries
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/aquasecurity/trivyReal-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
Impact
If a malicious actor is able to trigger Trivy to scan container images from a crafted malicious registry, it could result in the leakage of credentials for legitimate registries such as AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Google Cloud Artifact/Container Registry, or Azure Container Registry (ACR). These tokens can then be used to push/pull images from those registries to which the identity/user running Trivy has access.
Taking AWS as an example, the leakage only occurs when Trivy is able to transparently obtain registry credentials from the default credential provider chain. You are affected if Trivy is executed in any of the following situations:
- The environment variables contain static AWS credentials (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN) that have access to ECR.
- Within a Pod running on an EKS cluster that has been assigned a role with access to ECR using an IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA) annotation.
- etc.
You are not affected if the default credential provider chain is unable to obtain valid credentials. The same applies to GCP and Azure.
Workarounds
If you are using Trivy v0.51.2 or later, you are not affected. If you are using Trivy v0.51.1 or prior, you should ensure you only scan images from trusted registries.
This vulnerability only applies when scanning container images directly from a registry. If you use Docker, containerd or other runtime to pull images locally and scan them with Trivy, you are not affected. To enforce this behavior, you can use the --image-src flag to select which sources you trust.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/aquasecurity/trivy | all versions | 0.51.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/aquasecurity/trivy. 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/aquasecurity/trivy to 0.51.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj 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-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj 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-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj. 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-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-xcq4-m2r3-cmrj across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.