Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain write access to manifest history
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DeliveryReplay superseded history head during peer recovery
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ExploitServing peer skips manifest-generation match check
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ExecutionWithdrawn workload issued trusted mesh certificates (or Mesh CA key disclosed)
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ImpactImpersonate trusted mesh member / forge mesh trust
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Data authenticity verification
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation specifically requires the attacker to hold WRITE access to the Coordinator's manifest history, and targets the peer-recovery path that fails to confirm the serving peer uses the same manifest generation. The primary outcome (withdrawn workloads obtaining trusted mesh certificates) requires replaying a superseded history head; the more severe outcome (Mesh CA key disclosure) additionally requires possession of the secret seed. LIMITING FACTORS: this is not remotely reachable without privilege - the CVSS vector encodes PR:H (manifest-history write access) and AT:P (a specific transient/configuration state must hold, such as a replayable superseded head), so default, fully-patched or properly-isolated deployments without attacker manifest-write access are not exploitable; no user interaction is needed (UI:N). Affected only in Contrast versions 1.8.0 up to but not including 1.24.1. |
| Impact | This is a serious-but-conditional confidentiality/integrity flaw rather than a mass-exploitation threat. The CVSS 4.0 vector (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N, base 8.7 High) tells a consistent story: the attack is network-reachable (AV:N) but gated by two significant limiters - high privileges (PR:H, i.e. write access to Contrast's manifest history) and a present attack requirement (AT:P, a specific transient state such as a superseded history head being replayable or the secret seed being available). The high vulnerable-system and subsequent-system impacts (VC:H/VI:H and SC:H/SI:H) reflect that success yields trusted mesh certificates for withdrawn workloads or disclosure of the Mesh CA key - a trust-anchor compromise that cascades across the mesh. There is NO EPSS score, NO CISA KEV listing, and NO POC referenced in the provided data, so the correct exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The PR:H prerequisite means this is not an unauthenticated internet-facing issue; realistic risk is concentrated in insider/compromised-operator scenarios or post-compromise lateral trust abuse. Conflict to verify: the vector encodes PR:H (privileged attacker with manifest-history write access), yet the product is a confidential-computing platform where that privilege is precisely what Contrast's attestation model assumes the attacker does NOT reliably have - treat the PR:H boundary as the key risk hinge and confirm it against the edgelesssys advisory. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who already holds write access to the Coordinator's manifest history replays a superseded history head during a peer-recovery exchange; because the serving peer's manifest generation is not confirmed to match, a previously withdrawn workload is handed valid, trusted mesh certificates and rejoins the confidential mesh as a legitimate member. In the more severe variant, an attacker additionally possessing the secret seed uses the same verification gap to disclose the Mesh CA private key, compromising the trust anchor for the entire deployment. No public exploit code is referenced in the available data, and the attack requires the AT:P transient condition plus the PR:H privilege level encoded in the CVSS vector. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 12, 2026
Improper verification in the Edgeless Systems Contrast Coordinator's peer-recovery path (versions 1.8.0 through 1.24.0) lets an authenticated actor who holds write access to the Coordinator's manifest history replay a superseded history head, because the recovering peer never confirms that the serving peer is on the same manifest generation. Successful replay can cause withdrawn workloads to receive trusted mesh certificates, and an attacker who additionally possesses the secret seed can disclose the Mesh CA key; the flaw is conditional rather than mass-exploitable, requiring PR:H privileges plus a specific transient/replayable state (AT:P), and no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis. Patched versions of Contrast (1.24.1 and later) address the missing generation check.
RemediationAI
Upgrade Contrast to 1.24.1 or later, which is the vendor-released fix (Vendor-released patch: 1.24.1); validate the upgrade against the vendor advisory GHSA-rxcv-p3px-m3c3 (https://github.com/edgelesssys/contrast/security/advisories/GHSA-rxcv-p3px-m3c3). If immediate upgrade is not possible, apply compensating controls that directly attack the stated preconditions: remove or tightly restrict write access to the Coordinator's manifest history so that only the deployment pipeline's service identity can modify it (this removes the PR:H prerequisite but requires RBAC/identity review and may break operator workflows that update manifests ad hoc); pin and verify manifest generation continuity on recovering Coordinator peers, and alert on any recovery that presents a history head older than the current generation (detection-only, so it limits blast radius rather than preventing a well-timed replay); and treat any deployment where an attacker may have held both manifest-history write access and the secret seed as compromised, rotating the secret seed and re-issuing the Mesh CA / mesh certificates and re-attesting all workloads (disruptive - it invalidates existing mesh identities and forces re-attestation downtime). No vendor-released mitigation other than the 1.24.1 upgrade is documented in the provided references.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
Contrast is a confidential-computing platform for Kubernetes that runs workloads inside hardware-isolated confidential VMs and uses a Coordinator component to attest nodes and issue mesh certificates, all driven by a signed manifest that describes the intended deployment state. The root cause is CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity): during Coordinator peer recovery, a node joining an existing cluster accepts a manifest history head without verifying that the serving peer is using the same manifest generation, so a superseded (withdrawn) history head can be replayed as if it were current. Because the mesh CA and its issuance logic are anchored to the manifest, an accepted stale head lets workloads that were removed from the current manifest be attested and granted trusted mesh certificates (integrity and confidentiality impact on the mesh), and if the attacker also holds the secret seed the exposure extends to the Mesh CA key itself, allowing broader certificate forgery. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N) and the independent CVSS 3.1 assessment (AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N) agree that exploitation is network-reachable but gated behind high privileges - write access to manifest history - and a specific attack precondition (a replayable superseded head), with no availability impact.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N
Manifest-history write access gives PR:H, the required replay/seed precondition maps AT:P to AC:H, and CA-key/cert trust compromise across the mesh justifies S:C with C:H/I:H and A:N.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Contrast 1.8.0 before 1.24.1 contains an improper verification vulnerability in Coordinator peer recovery that fails to confirm the serving peer uses the same manifest generation. Attackers with write access to manifest history can replay a superseded history head so withdrawn workloads obtain trusted mesh certificates, or with the secret seed disclose the Mesh CA key.
Technical POC Analysis
CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity), in the Contrast Coordinator's peer-recovery path.
Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.
Executive ViewAI
Edgeless Systems Contrast Coordinator versions 1.8.0 through 1.24.0 carry a high-severity trust verification flaw that could let a privileged actor with write access to manifest history cause withdrawn workloads to receive trusted mesh certificates, and with the secret seed, expose the Mesh CA key. Although no public exploit identified at time of analysis and exploitation is conditional, the issue affects the integrity of workload identity and certificate trust for organizations using Contrast in confidential-computing environments. Security and platform teams should prioritize patching to Contrast 1.24.1 or later and review access to manifest history and seed material.
Apply vendor patch.
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Remote attestation relay in Edgeless Systems Contrast before 1.16.0 allows an attacker to impersonate a Contrast Coordin
Container image substitution in Edgeless Contrast 1.14.0 through 1.23.0 lets an attacker who can reach the Kata agent AP
Arbitrary writes to the guest root filesystem in Edgeless Systems' Contrast confidential-computing runtime before 1.19.1
Workload secrets are written to the initializer's standard output at INFO level in Edgeless Systems Contrast versions 1.
Workload secrets managed by Edgeless Systems' Contrast confidential-computing platform are written to Kubernetes pod log
Local privilege escalation in Edgeless Systems Contrast 1.8.0 through 1.24.0 allows a low-privileged local user on a nod
Host-controlled AML injection in Edgeless Systems' Contrast confidential-computing runtime before 1.18.0 lets an adversa
Coordinator impersonation in Edgeless Systems Contrast (a confidential-computing runtime for Kubernetes) before version
Malicious Kubernetes hosts can read confidential data written to Contrast secure persistent volumes by supplying a craft
Credential leakage in Edgeless Systems Contrast through 1.20.0 stems from unanchored suffix matching in the imagepuller'
Authenticated workloads that hold a valid mesh certificate can force a recovered runtime panic in the Edgeless Contrast
Contrast versions up to and including 1.9.0 allow the untrusted host underlying a bare-metal confidential container depl
EUVD-2026-97661
GHSA-mr8p-7h3w-x7jp
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB