CVE-2026-85747
Description
A flaw was found in Distribution. A remote attacker operating a malicious registry or intercepting network communications can substitute container image manifests with arbitrary content. This issue occurs because the client processes returned manifests for digest-pinned requests without verifying that the manifest body matches the expected cryptographic hash. Consequently, affected clients and caching proxies can accept, store, and redistribute untrusted container content.
Statement
This vulnerability has been rated as having a Moderate impact because successful exploitation requires high attack complexity, specifically requiring an adversary to operate a malicious registry endpoint or execute an active man-in-the-middle network interception. In standard enterprise environments, container tools and caching proxies interact with authenticated registries over secure TLS connections, substantially reducing exposure. The issue primarily affects deployments where clients retrieve digest-pinned images through untrusted remote endpoints or unverified pull-through proxy caches.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.8 | N/A | 6.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Changed | N/A | Changed |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Other
Integrity checks usually use a secret key that helps authenticate the data origin. Skipping integrity checking generally opens up the possibility that new data from an invalid source can be injected.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Other
Data that is parsed and used may be corrupted.
Non-Repudiation,Other
Technical Impact: Hide Activities; Other
Without a checksum check, it is impossible to determine if any changes have been made to the data after it was sent.
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