Notation's default maxSignatureAttempts in notation verify enables an endless data attack

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2023-33958: 0.48% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 41.84 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact An attacker who controls or compromises a registry can make the registry serve an infinite number of signatures for the artifact, causing a denial of service to the host machine running notation verify. Patches The problem has been fixed in the release v1.0.0-rc.6. Users should upgrade their notation packages to v1.0.0-rc.6 or above. Workarounds User should use secure and trusted container registries Credits The notation project would like to thank Adam Korczynski (@AdamKorcz) for responsibly disclosing the issue found during an security audit (facilitated by OSTIF and sponsored by CNCF) and Shiwei Zhang (@shizhMSFT) for root cause analysis.

Published by the source

6 Jun 2023, 16:44 UTC

Last modified by the source

5 Nov 2023, 05:03 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:59 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-rvrx-rrwh-r9p6

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-33958

Advisory: Notation's default `maxSignatureAttempts` in `notation verify` enables an endless data attack
IDs: CVE-2023-33958, GHSA-rvrx-rrwh-r9p6
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-33958 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:59 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/notaryproject/notation 1.0.0-rc.6. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/notaryproject/notation: affected < 1.0.0-rc.6; fixed in 1.0.0-rc.6

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/notaryproject/notation: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/notaryproject/notation.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rvrx-rrwh-r9p6 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-rvrx-rrwh-r9p6 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/notaryproject/notation >=0 <1.0.0-rc.6)

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