CVE-2023-25656
notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification
notation-go is a collection of libraries for supporting Notation sign, verify, push, and pull of oci artifacts. Prior to version 1.0.0-rc.3, notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures. The application will be killed, and thus availability is impacted. The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Some workarounds are available. Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification
notation-go is a collection of libraries for supporting Notation sign, verify, push, and pull of oci artifacts. Prior to version 1.0.0-rc.3, notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures. The application will be killed, and thus availability is impacted. The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Some workarounds are available. Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce.
- Record
CVE-2023-25656- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2023-0663
notation-go is a collection of libraries for supporting Notation sign, verify, push, and pull of oci artifacts. Prior to version 1.0.0-rc.3, notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures. The application will be killed, and thus availability is impacted. The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Some workarounds are available. Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce.
- Record
EUVD-2023-0663- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-87x9-7grx-m28v
notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification
Impact
notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures and the application will be finally killed, and thus availability is impacted.
Patches
The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Users should upgrade their notation-go packages to v1.0.0-rc.3 or above.
Workarounds
Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce
Credits
The notation-go project would like to thank Adam Korczynski (@AdamKorcz) for responsibly disclosing this issue during a security fuzzing audit sponsored by CNCF and Shiwei Zhang (@shizhMSFT) for root cause analysis and detailed vulnerability report.
References
- Record
GHSA-87x9-7grx-m28v- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
notation-go is a collection of libraries for supporting Notation sign, verify, push, and pull of oci artifacts. Prior to version 1.0.0-rc.3, notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures. The application will be killed, and thus availability is impacted. The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Some workarounds are available. Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce.
- Record
CVE-2023-25656- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification
notation-go is a collection of libraries for supporting Notation sign, verify, push, and pull of oci artifacts. Prior to version 1.0.0-rc.3, notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures. The application will be killed, and thus availability is impacted. The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Some workarounds are available. Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce.
- Record
CVE-2023-25656- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-87x9-7grx-m28v
notation-go has excessive memory allocation on verification
Impact
notation-go users will find their application using excessive memory when verifying signatures and the application will be finally killed, and thus availability is impacted.
Patches
The problem has been patched in the release v1.0.0-rc.3. Users should upgrade their notation-go packages to v1.0.0-rc.3 or above.
Workarounds
Users can review their own trust policy file and check if the identity string contains =#. Meanwhile, users should only put trusted certificates in their trust stores referenced by their own trust policy files, and make sure the authenticity validation is set to enforce
Credits
The notation-go project would like to thank Adam Korczynski (@AdamKorcz) for responsibly disclosing this issue during a security fuzzing audit sponsored by CNCF and Shiwei Zhang (@shizhMSFT) for root cause analysis and detailed vulnerability report.
References
- Record
GHSA-87x9-7grx-m28v- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGO-2023-1589 No score
Denial of service from memory exhaustion in github.com/notaryproject/notation-go
Parsing PKIX distinguished names containing the string "=#" can cause excessive memory consumption.
- Record
GO-2023-1589- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
github.com/notaryproject/notation-goGo |
before 1.0.0-rc.3 | 1.0.0-rc.3 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2023-25656 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Notaryproject Notation-go, published February 20, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.44%, the 38th percentile. Fixed in github.com/notaryproject/notation-go 1.0.0-rc.3.
References
github.com/notaryproject/notation-go/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.3
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-25656