dbcve.org
Notation GoApplication · Notaryproject

CVE-2023-33959

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-06-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.0.0 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
notation is a CLI tool to sign and verify OCI artifacts and container images. An attacker who has compromised a registry can cause users to verify the wrong artifact. The problem has been fixed in the release v1.0.0-rc.6. Users should upgrade their notation-go library to v1.0.0-rc.6 or above. Users unable to upgrade may restrict container registries to a set of secure and trusted container registries.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

In notation (a CLI for signing/verifying OCI artifacts and container images), an attacker who has compromised a container registry can manipulate the verification process to cause users to trust and verify the wrong artifact. This allows a compromised registry to present malicious content as legitimate, bypassing the trust verification mechanism.

MitigationUpgrade notation-go library to v1.0.0-rc.6 or above. If upgrading is not possible, restrict container registry usage to only secure and trusted registries.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Notation GoApplication
Affected:< 1.0.0= 1.0.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed notation version
    Run `notation version` or `notation --version` to determine the exact version of the notation CLI installed in your environment.
    Affected if The version is less than 1.0.0 or equals 1.0.0 (for example, 0.12.0, 0.13.0, 1.0.0). Versions 1.0.0-rc.6 and above are not affected.
  2. Identify notation usage with remote registries
    Review your CI/CD pipelines, scripts, or manual workflows that use the `notation verify` command. Identify which container registries (such as Docker Hub, Azure Container Registry, AWS ECR, or private registries) are being queried for artifact verification.
    Affected if You use notation to verify OCI artifacts or container images pulled from any remote (network-accessible) container registry.
  3. Check trust policy configuration
    Examine your notation trust policy file (typically located at `~/.notation/trustpolicy.json` or defined via the `NOTATION_TRUST_POLICY` environment variable). Look for entries that specify `repository` scopes pointing to remote registries.
    Affected if Your trust policy contains entries with repository scopes that reference remote, potentially untrusted registries.
  4. Verify if signature verification is enforced
    Run `notation inspect <reference>` on a sample artifact from your used registries to confirm whether signature verification is actually being performed. Check if the verification process retrieves metadata or payloads from the remote registry.
    Affected if Notation is configured to fetch and verify signatures or metadata from remote registries during the verification process.

You are affected if your installed notation version is less than 1.0.0 or exactly 1.0.0 AND you use it to verify artifacts from remote container registries, as a compromised registry could manipulate verification to present malicious content as legitimate.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.0.0 or later
Fixed in 1.0.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade notation-go library to v1.0.0-rc.6 or above. If upgrading is not possible, restrict container registry usage to only secure and trusted registries.

Recommended fix High confidence

v1.0.0-rc.6 or later

  1. 1. Identify the notation-go library version currently in use by checking the project's dependency files (e.g., go.mod)
  2. 2. Update the notation-go dependency to version v1.0.0-rc.6 or later by modifying the dependency version in go.mod
  3. 3. Run 'go mod tidy' to update the dependency lock file
  4. 4. Rebuild and redeploy any applications that depend on the notation-go library
  5. 5. Verify the upgrade by checking that the library version is now v1.0.0-rc.6 or higher

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Notation Go Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-33959 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-33959 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data