Distribution's token authentication allows attacker to inject an untrusted signing key in a JWT

{
  "id": "70467dcaf16d44e3d2110215665f39dd206f709bdfd61bce21629083f9f27ea2",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-24976",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Distribution's token authentication allows attacker to inject an untrusted signing key in a JWT",
    "summary": "Distribution is a toolkit to pack, ship, store, and deliver container content. Systems running registry versions 3.0.0-beta.1 through 3.0.0-rc.2 with token authentication enabled may be vulnerable to an issue in which token authentication allows an attacker to inject an untrusted signing key in a JSON web token (JWT). The issue lies in how the JSON web key (JWK) verification is performed. When a JWT contains a JWK header without a certificate chain, the code only checks if the KeyID (`kid`) matches one of the trusted keys, but doesn't verify that the actual key material matches. A fix for the issue is available at commit 5ea9aa028db65ca5665f6af2c20ecf9dc34e5fcd and expected to be a part of version 3.0.0-rc.3. There is no way to work around this issue without patching if the system requires token authentication.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2025-24976",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2025-24976",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2025-24976",
        "GHSA-phw4-mc57-4hwc",
        "GO-2025-3460"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/distribution/distribution",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "c709432b917488208fa78a7932843d91eca59801"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "f4a500caf68169dccb0b54cb90523e68ee1ac2be"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "3.0.0-beta.1"
                      },
                      {
                        "last_affected": "3.0.0-rc.2"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "f4a500caf68169dccb0b54cb90523e68ee1ac2be"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v3.0.0-rc.2",
            "v3.0.0-rc.1",
            "v3.0.0-beta.1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-24976.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:53.373547898Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/24xxx/CVE-2025-24976.json",
        "https://github.com/distribution/distribution/security/advisories/GHSA-phw4-mc57-4hwc",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-24976",
        "https://github.com/distribution/distribution/commit/f4a500caf68169dccb0b54cb90523e68ee1ac2be"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-639"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/24xxx/CVE-2025-24976.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2025-24976",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 522140,
  "published_at": "2025-02-11T15:48:59.7+00:00"
}