CVE-2026-85747

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Remote Code Execution in Distribution Toolkit

Publication date: 2026-10-13

Last updated on: 2026-10-18

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

Distribution is a toolkit to pack, ship, store, and deliver container content. Prior to 3.1.2, registry/client.(*manifests).Get() reads a manifest returned for a digest-pinned request and passes it to distribution.UnmarshalManifest without hashing the body against the requested digest, allowing a malicious or intercepted registry response to substitute attacker-chosen manifest content even when Docker-Content-Digest claims the requested value. The bundled pull-through proxy in registry/proxy/proxymanifeststore.go can cache and re-serve the substituted manifest. This issue is fixed in version 3.1.2.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-10-13

Last Modified

2026-10-18

Generated

2026-10-19

AI Q&A

2026-10-14

EPSS Evaluated

2026-10-18

NVD

CVE-2026-85747

EUVD

EUVD-2026-99225

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
distribution	distribution	< 3.1.2

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-354	The product does not validate or incorrectly validates the integrity check values or "checksums" of a message. This may prevent it from detecting if the data has been modified or corrupted in transmission.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Distribution toolkit (before version 3.1.2) allows a malicious registry or man-in-the-middle attacker to serve incorrect manifest content even when the Docker-Content-Digest header claims the content matches the requested digest. The client does not verify that the manifest body matches the digest, bypassing digest pinning which is meant to ensure content integrity.

Detection Guidance

Check if your distribution/registry version is below 3.1.2. Run: docker exec <registry-container> registry --version or check the release tag in the registry logs. If vulnerable, inspect network traffic for registry responses with mismatched Docker-Content-Digest headers.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, attackers could substitute malicious container images or manifests during pull operations. This could lead to supply chain attacks, where users unknowingly deploy compromised software. Systems relying on digest pinning for security, such as CI/CD pipelines or image policy controllers, are particularly at risk.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade to distribution version 3.1.2 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, disable digest pinning in clients or add network-level integrity checks for registry traffic to detect tampered manifests.

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