{"id":"GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8","summary":"Contrast's unauthenticated recovery allows Coordinator impersonation","details":"### Impact\n\nRecovering coordinators do not verify the seed provided by the recovering party. This allows an attacker to set up a coordinator with a manifest that passes validation, but with a secret seed controlled by the attacker. \n\nIf network traffic is redirected from the legitimate coordinator to the attacker's coordinator, a workload owner is susceptible to impersonation if either \n\n* they `set` a new manifest and don't compare the root CA cert with the existing one (this is the default of the `contrast` CLI) or\n* they `verify` the coordinator and don't compare the root CA cert with a trusted reference.\n\nUnder these circumstances, the attacker can:\n\n* Issue certificates that chain back to the attacker coordinator's root CA.\n* Recover arbitrary workload secrets of workloads deployed after the attack.\n\nThis issue does **not** affect the following:\n\n* secrets of the legitimate coordinator (seed, workload secrets, CA)\n* integrity of workloads, even when used with the rogue coordinator\n* certificates chaining back to the mesh CA\n\n### Patches\n\nThis issue is patched in Contrast v1.4.1.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nThe issue can be avoided by verifying the coordinator root CA cert against expectations.\n\n* At the first `set` call, keep a copy of the CA cert returned by the coordinator.\n* After subsequent `set` or `verify` calls, compare the returned CA cert with the backup copy. If it matches bit-for-bit, the coordinator is legitimate.","aliases":["CVE-2025-71426","GO-2025-3455"],"modified":"2026-09-27T11:55:52.460631994Z","published":"2025-02-05T21:30:35Z","database_specific":{"nvd_published_at":null,"cwe_ids":["CWE-285"],"severity":"HIGH","github_reviewed":true,"github_reviewed_at":"2025-02-05T21:30:35Z"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/edgelesssys/contrast/security/advisories/GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://github.com/edgelesssys/contrast"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2025-3455"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"github.com/edgelesssys/contrast","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/github.com/edgelesssys/contrast"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.4.1"}]}],"database_specific":{"last_known_affected_version_range":"\u003c= 1.4.0","source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2025/02/GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8/GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.9.0","severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N"}]}