CVE-2023-24827

A password disclosure flaw was found in Syft versions v0.69.0 and v0.69.1. This flaw leaks the password stored in the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable.

Workarounds

There are no workarounds for this vulnerability.

References

Patch pull request: https://github.com/anchore/syft/pull/1538

The SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable is for the syft attest command to generate attested SBOMs for the given container image. This environment variable is used to decrypt the private key (provided with syft attest --key <path-to-key-file>) during the signing process while generating an SBOM attestation.

This vulnerability affects users running syft that have the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable set with credentials (regardless of if the attest command is being used or not). Users that do not have the environment variable SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD set are not affected by this issue.

The credentials are leaked in two ways:

• in the syft logs when -vv or -vvv are used in the syft command (which is any log level >= DEBUG)
• in the attestation or SBOM only when the syft-json format is used

Note that as of v0.69.0 any generated attestations by the syft attest command are uploaded to the OCI registry (if you have write access to that registry) in the same way cosign attach is done. This means that any attestations generated for the affected versions of syft when the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable was set would leak credentials in the attestation payload uploaded to the OCI registry.

Example commands run from affected versions of syft that show the credential disclosure:

$ SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD=123456 syft <container-image-or-directory-input> -o syft-json | grep 123456
# "123456" is in the output

$ SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD=123456 syft attest <container-image-input> -o syft-json 
$ cosign download attestation <container-image-input> | jq -r '.payload' | base64 -d | grep 123456
# "123456" is in the output

CVE-2023-24827 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.70.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

The patch has been released in v0.70.0.

1. What is CVE-2023-24827? CVE-2023-24827 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in github.com/anchore/syft (go), affecting versions >= 0.69.0, < 0.70.0. It is fixed in 0.70.0.
2. How severe is CVE-2023-24827? CVE-2023-24827 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of github.com/anchore/syft are affected by CVE-2023-24827? github.com/anchore/syft (go) versions >= 0.69.0, < 0.70.0 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2023-24827? Yes. CVE-2023-24827 is fixed in 0.70.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2023-24827 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-24827 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2023-24827 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2023-24827? Upgrade github.com/anchore/syft to 0.70.0 or later.