CVE-2026-24845
📋 TL;DR
malcontent versions 0.10.0 through 1.20.2 expose Docker registry credentials when scanning malicious OCI images. Attackers can redirect authentication requests to steal credentials via crafted WWW-Authenticate headers. Organizations using malcontent for supply chain security analysis are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- malcontent
📦 What is this software?
Malcontent by Chainguard
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Docker registry credentials are stolen, allowing attackers to push malicious images, pull private images, or compromise downstream systems that trust those credentials.
Likely Case
Credentials for internal or public registries are exposed, potentially leading to unauthorized access to container images and supply chain attacks.
If Mitigated
With anonymous auth or patched versions, only public image metadata is accessible, limiting impact to information disclosure about image contents.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires controlling a registry or manipulating registry responses to redirect authentication. No public exploit code is known.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.20.3
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent/security/advisories/GHSA-9m43-p3cx-w8j5
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Update malcontent to version 1.20.3 or later using your package manager. 2. Verify the update with 'malcontent --version'. 3. No restart is needed as malcontent runs as a command-line tool.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Use anonymous authentication
allConfigure malcontent to use anonymous auth instead of Docker credentials for OCI pulls
export MALCONTENT_AUTH_ANONYMOUS=true
malcontent scan --anonymous
Restrict registry access
allOnly allow malcontent to scan images from trusted registries using network controls
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable malcontent scanning of OCI images from untrusted or external registries
- Use separate, limited-scope credentials for malcontent that don't grant push access to registries
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check malcontent version with 'malcontent --version'. If version is between 0.10.0 and 1.20.2 inclusive, the system is vulnerable.Check Version:
malcontent --versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, confirm version is 1.20.3 or higher with 'malcontent --version'. Test scanning an image to ensure it works with anonymous auth.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Authentication failures to unexpected domains in malcontent logs
- Unusual registry authentication patterns
Network Indicators:
- HTTP redirects during OCI image pulls to unexpected domains
- Authentication requests to non-standard endpoints
SIEM Query:
process.name="malcontent" AND (http.status_code=3* OR network.destination.domain NOT IN ("docker.io", "gcr.io", "quay.io"))