GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593 malcontent: Error-path cleanup gap can leak scanners and fds and degrade availability
Resource leaks in archive extraction paths can exhaust system resources, leading to denial of service for applications using the malcontent library.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593?
GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593 is a denial of service vulnerability in github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent, published on 2 Mar 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Several extraction and scanning code paths registered late defers which could leak resources and exhaust system resources.
This report is an aggregate of these individual reports for the affected code:
| Advisory | Affected File |
|---|---|
GHSA-jjgh-mc5q-gch7 | pkg/action/scan.go |
GHSA-mwmf-fxh2-w4x7 | pkg/archive/deb.go |
GHSA-p8j3-rpf5-gwv3 | pkg/archive/gzip.go |
GHSA-qfh4-7f5v-75gq | pkg/archive/zlib.go |
GHSA-wxxf-r586-5rf5 | pkg/archive/bzip2.go |
Fix: #1354, #1355, #1356, #1361
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Oleh Konko from 1seal for discovering and reporting all six of these issues.
Which versions are affected by GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent Go | All versions | 1.21.0 |
github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent Go | All versions | 1.21.0 |
github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent Go | All versions | 1.21.0 |
How do I fix GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593?
Upgrade github.com/chainguard-dev/malcontent to 1.21.0 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 GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of GHSA-54p8-x2m9-c593 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GO-2026-4583.