CVE-2024-51491 Process crash during CRL-based revocation check on OS using separate mount point for temp Directory in notation-go

What is CVE-2024-51491?

CVE-2024-51491 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in notaryproject notation-go, published on 13 Jan 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

notion-go is a collection of libraries for supporting sign and verify OCI artifacts. Based on Notary Project specifications. The issue was identified during Quarkslab's security audit on the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) based revocation check feature. After retrieving the CRL, notation-go attempts to update the CRL cache using the os.Rename method. However, this operation may fail due to operating system-specific limitations, particularly when the source and destination paths are on different mount points. This failure could lead to an unexpected program termination. In method `crl.(*FileCache).Set`, a temporary file is created in the OS dedicated area (like /tmp for, usually, Linux/Unix). The file is written and then it is tried to move it to the dedicated `notation` cache directory thanks `os.Rename`. As specified in Go documentation, OS specific restriction may apply. When used with Linux OS, it is relying on rename syscall from the libc and as per the documentation, moving a file to a different mountpoint raises an EXDEV error, interpreted as Cross device link not permitted error. Some Linux distribution, like RedHat use a dedicated filesystem (tmpfs), mounted on a specific mountpoint (usually /tmp) for temporary files. When using such OS, revocation check based on CRL will repeatedly crash notation. As a result the signature verification process is aborted as process crashes. This issue has been addressed in version 1.3.0-rc.2 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-703

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-51491?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/notaryproject/notation-go. It affects 1 product.

Products include Notaryproject Notation-Go.

How do I fix CVE-2024-51491?

Upgrade github.com/notaryproject/notation-go to 1.3.0-rc.2 or later.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2024-51491 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-51491 exists.

Other vulnerabilities in notaryproject notation-go

• CVE-2023-33959 Verification bypass can cause users into verifying the wrong artifact High 8.4
• CVE-2023-25656 notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification High 7.5
• CVE-2023-33958 Default `maxSignatureAttempts` in `notation verify` enables an endless data attack in notation Medium 5.4
• CVE-2024-23332 Client configured with permissive trust policies susceptible to rollback attack in Notary Project Medium 4.0
• CVE-2023-33957 Denial of service from high number of artifact signatures in notation Low 2.6

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-qjh3-4j3h-vmwp, GO-2025-3382, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-51491.