CVE-2024-47534

During the ongoing work on the TUF conformance test suite, we have come across a test that reveals what we believe is a bug in go-tuf with security implications. The bug exists in go-tuf delegation tracing and could result in downloading the wrong artifact.

We have come across this issue in the test in this PR: https://github.com/theupdateframework/tuf-conformance/pull/115.

The test - test_graph_traversal - sets up a repository with a series of delegations, invokes the clients refresh() and then checks the order in which the client traced the delegations. The test shows that the go-tuf client inconsistently traces the delegations in a wrong way. For example, during one CI run, the two-level-delegations test case triggered a wrong order. The delegations in this look as such:

"two-level-delegations": DelegationsTestCase(
        delegations=[
            DelegationTester("targets", "A"),
            DelegationTester("targets", "B"),
            DelegationTester("B", "C"),
        ],
        visited_order=["A", "B", "C"],
    ),

Here, targets delegate to "A", and to "B", and "B" delegates to "C". The client should trace the delegations in the order "A" then "B" then "C" but in this particular CI run, go-tuf traced the delegations "B"->"C"->"A".

In a subsequent CI run, this test case did not fail, but another one did.

@jku has done a bit of debugging and believes that the returned map of GetRolesForTarget returns a map that causes this behavior:

https://github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/blob/f95222bdd22d2ac4e5b8ed6fe912b645e213c3b5/metadata/metadata.go#L565-L580

We believe that this map should be an ordered list instead of a map.

Multiple concurrent operations access a shared resource without proper synchronization, producing unpredictable results depending on timing. Typical impact: TOCTOU exploits, data corruption, or privilege escalation.

CVE-2024-47534 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (2.0.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

1. What is CVE-2024-47534? CVE-2024-47534 is a high-severity race condition vulnerability in github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/v2 (go), affecting versions < 2.0.1. It is fixed in 2.0.1. Multiple concurrent operations access a shared resource without proper synchronization, producing unpredictable results depending on timing.
2. How severe is CVE-2024-47534? CVE-2024-47534 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). 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/theupdateframework/go-tuf/v2 are affected by CVE-2024-47534? github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/v2 (go) versions < 2.0.1 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2024-47534? Yes. CVE-2024-47534 is fixed in 2.0.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2024-47534 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2024-47534 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-2024-47534 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-2024-47534? Upgrade github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/v2 to 2.0.1 or later.