Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessHold local uid matching build user
-
DeliveryOverwrite /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d keys
-
ExploitIntercept or tamper apt repo
-
ExecutionServe forged signed packages
-
ImpactCompromise system via apt install
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
|
| Exploitation Conditions | All of the following must hold: (1) the image was built with Isar >= 0.11, leaving /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d owned by the calling (build) user; (2) that build user's uid is identical to an unprivileged user account that exists inside the generated image; (3) the attacker controls that in-image unprivileged account, giving write access to the keystore; and (4) per the advisory, altering keys alone is insufficient - the attacker must also manipulate a remote repository or intercept non-secure (unencrypted/unauthenticated) apt communication. Limiting factors: there is explicitly NO impact on images using an immutable rootfs or where apt is never invoked; exploitation is local only and requires the coincidental uid match (a non-default condition), so default builds without the uid collision are not affected. |
| Impact | This is a medium-severity integrity weakness (CVSS 5.1) whose real-world urgency is low-to-moderate, and the signals are broadly consistent rather than conflicting. The CVSS vector is AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N: local attack vector, high attack complexity, integrity-only impact. The vuln.today decision label is 'this_month' (not act_now/emergency), there is no CISA KEV listing, no EPSS probability was supplied, and no public exploit code was identified - all pointing to a non-urgent, difficult-to-exploit flaw rather than a mass-exploitation threat. One discrepancy should be verified with the vendor: the input vector states PR:N (unauthenticated), yet the GHSA advisory and description make clear the attacker must already be a local unprivileged user account inside the generated image whose uid happens to equal the build (Isar-executing) user's uid - that is a pre-existing local foothold, which argues for PR:L. The AC:H rating is well supported: exploitation depends on a non-default uid collision AND, by the advisory's own words, modifying the keys alone 'does not trigger an exploit' - the attacker must additionally manipulate a remote repository or intercept non-secure apt communication. Net: a genuine defense-in-depth regression (apt signature trust can be silently undermined) but gated behind multiple preconditions, so it is a patch-this-month item, not an emergency. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | In an Isar-built image (>= 0.11) where the build was run under a uid that also exists as an unprivileged account inside the image, that in-image user overwrites the attacker-writable /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d keys with their own GPG key. Combined with a man-in-the-middle position or control of a repository mirror, the attacker then serves forged packages that apt accepts as validly signed, undermining repository integrity. No public exploit code was identified at time of analysis; only the advisory and fix commit are referenced. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 23, 2026
Isar 0.11 and later create /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d during bootstrap as the calling build user rather than root, so the apt keystore inside the generated image carries non-root ownership. If that build user's uid happens to match an unprivileged account inside the image, whoever controls that in-image account can rewrite existing repository signing keys or drop in new ones and quietly defeat apt's repository integrity checks. Exploitation is local only and conditional: per the advisory, key tampering is just one link in a chain and must be paired with manipulation of a remote repository or interception of non-secure apt traffic, and images with an immutable rootfs or that never invoke apt are unaffected. No public exploit code was identified at time of analysis and there is no KEV entry; the assessed risk is medium-severity with low-to-moderate real-world urgency, suited to a normal monthly patch cycle.
RemediationAI
Upstream fix available (commit); a released patched version is not independently confirmed, so consumers should pin to a commit or release that contains 29e84ed301c8d25c570300cf82b563b7961392b0 (https://github.com/ilbers/isar/commit/29e84ed301c8d25c570300cf82b563b7961392b0) and rebuild affected images. Where an immediate Isar upgrade is not possible, the advisory's workaround adds a setup hook to meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc - --setup-hook='chown -R root:root "$1/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d"' - placed immediately after the existing sync-in hook that populates the keystore; the trade-off is that this is a local recipe patch that must be carried forward and re-validated on recipe updates, and it fixes only newly built images. Because the defect is baked into image content at build time, already-produced artifacts must be regenerated or have the keystore ownership corrected to root:root as part of post-build hardening. Note that images with an immutable rootfs or images that never invoke apt require no action for this issue, and confirming whether the build caller's uid collides with an in-image unprivileged account is a useful way to scope which existing images are actually exposed. Full details are in the vendor advisory at https://github.com/ilbers/isar/security/advisories/GHSA-rq66-pfw5-whqq.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Isar is an integration/build system that assembles Debian-based root filesystems, and the affected path lives in meta/recipes-core/isar-mmdebstrap/isar-mmdebstrap.inc, where the do_bootstrap() task drives mmdebstrap. To support deploying locally supplied keys, the recipe creates /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d ahead of time with a mkdir setup hook and then syncs the key material in with sync-in; because this happens under the calling user's credentials, the resulting directory inherits that user's ownership instead of root:root. That directory is a trust anchor for APT, the package manager's view of which repository signatures are acceptable, so ownership there is a security boundary: an in-image account that can write to it can substitute or add GPG public keys and thereby legitimize attacker-signed repository metadata. The weakness is mapped to CWE-1290, a security-identifier/ownership handling class, and manifests here concretely as a filesystem owner assigned from the build-time caller rather than from the intended in-image security principal. The practical precondition is a uid collision between the Isar build user on the host and an unprivileged account that exists inside the produced image; without that collision the directory simply has an owner that no in-image account corresponds to. The advisory is explicit that key substitution alone is not an exploit and only becomes meaningful when combined with control over a remote repository or the ability to intercept non-secure apt communication, and that immutable-rootfs images and images where apt is never invoked are not affected.
Know when Isar gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Local unprivileged account matching the build uid (AV:L/PR:L); uid-collision precondition plus required external repo-tamper step make it high-complexity (AC:H); keystore tampering is integrity-only (I:H).
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
DescriptionCVE.org
Isar is an integration system for automated root filesystem generation. In versions 0.11 and newer, /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d is created manually during bootstrap setup to be able to deploy local keys. By that, the directory is owned by the calling user (the one that executes Isar) instead of root. If the calling user's id is identical to one of an unprivileged user inside the image, this user is able to alter existing keys and deploy new ones, silently breaking the apt repo integrity protection. The issue is has no impact on those images that use an immutable rootfs, or if apt is never invoked. Changing only the keys does not trigger an exploit, it's just one step in a chain. An attacker would also have to manipulate a remote repo or intercept non-secure communication with it. This issue has been patched via commit 29e84ed.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
EUVD-2026-109069
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
Exploit-DB