Cosign verification accepts any valid Rekor entry under certain conditions
### Impact A Cosign bundle can be crafted to successfully verify an artifact even if the embedded Rekor entry does not reference the artifact's digest, signature or public key. When verifying a Rekor entry, Cosign verifies the Rekor entry signature, and also compares the artifact's digest, the user's public key from either a Fulcio certificate or provided by the user, and the artifact signature to the Rekor entry contents. Without these comparisons, Cosign would accept any response from Rekor as valid. A malicious actor that has compromised a user's identity or signing key could construct a valid Cosign bundle by including any arbitrary Rekor entry, thus preventing the user from being able to audit the signing event. This vulnerability only affects users that provide a trusted root via `--trusted-root` or when fetched automatically from a TUF repository, when no trusted key material is provided via `SIGSTORE_REKOR_PUBLIC_KEY`. When using the default flag values in Cosign v3 to sign and verify (`--use-signing-config=true` and `--new-bundle-format=true` for signing, `--new-bundle-format=true` for verification), users are unaffected. Cosign v2 users are affected using the default flag values. This issue had previously been fixed in https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/security/advisories/GHSA-8gw7-4j42-w388 but recent refactoring caused a regression. We have added testing to prevent a future regression. #### Steps to Reproduce ``` echo blob > /tmp/blob cosign sign-blob -y --new-bundle-format=false --bundle /tmp/bundle.1 --use-signing-config=false /tmp/blob cosign sign-blob -y --new-bundle-format=false --bundle /tmp/bundle.2 --use-signing-config=false /tmp/blob jq ".rekorBundle |= $(jq .rekorBundle /tmp/bundle.2)" /tmp/bundle.1 > /tmp/bundle.3 cosign verify-blob --bundle /tmp/bundle.3 --certificate-identity-regexp='.*' --certificate-oidc-issuer-regexp='.*' /tmp/blob ``` ### Patches Upgrade to Cosign v2.6.2 or Cosign v3.0.4. This does not affect Cosign v1. ### Workarounds You can provide trusted key material via a set of flags under certain conditions. The simplest fix is to upgrade to the latest Cosign v2 or v3 release. Note that the example below works for `cosign verify`, `cosign verify-blob, `cosign verify-blob-attestation`, and `cosign verify-attestation`. ``` SIGSTORE_REKOR_PUBLIC_KEY=<path to Rekor pub key> cosign verify-blob --use-signing-config=false --new-bundle-format=false --bundle=<path to bundle> <artifact> ```
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-22703US | medium5.5OT elevated | — | ||
Cosign provides code signing and transparency for containers and binaries. Prior to versions 2.6.2 and 3.0.4, Cosign bundle can be crafted to successfully verify an artifact even i… | ||||
references
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/sigstore/cosignPACKAGE
- https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/commit/6832fba4928c1ad69400235bbc41212de5006176WEB
- https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/pull/4623WEB
- https://github.com/sigstore/cosign/security/advisories/GHSA-whqx-f9j3-ch6mWEB
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-22703ADVISORY
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