Vulnerability Description
ORAS (OCI Registry As Storage) is a CLI and library for managing artifacts in OCI registries. In ORAS CLI versions up to and including 1.3.2, the recursive referrer traversal does not track visited descriptors, so a malicious OCI registry that returns a cyclic referrer graph causes unbounded recursion and memory growth. This affects oras discover, whose recursive traversal is enabled by default because the --depth option defaults to 0 (unlimited), as well as the recursive referrer counting used by the oras backup and oras restore workflows. A cyclic graph can be as simple as A referring to B and B referring back to A. A malicious registry can use this to cause a client-side denial of service, exhausting CPU and memory and hanging automation or CI/CD pipelines that run ORAS against untrusted registry metadata. The vulnerability does not extend to code execution, artifact substitution, or integrity bypass. This issue has been fixed in version 1.3.3.
CVSS Score
MEDIUM
Related Weaknesses (CWE)
References
- https://github.com/oras-project/oras/commit/440eb65d07a0631f131944d28e7c29d562ec
- https://github.com/oras-project/oras/security/advisories/GHSA-298f-872v-2rcx
FAQ
What is CVE-2026-55588?
CVE-2026-55588 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 6.5 (MEDIUM). ORAS (OCI Registry As Storage) is a CLI and library for managing artifacts in OCI registries. In ORAS CLI versions up to and including 1.3.2, the recursive referrer traversal does not track visited de...
How severe is CVE-2026-55588?
CVE-2026-55588 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 6.5/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-55588?
Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Review vendor security bulletins for remediation guidance.