MediumCVE-2026-22703

Cosign verification accepts any valid Rekor entry under certain conditions (CVE-2026-22703)

Published 10.01.2026Sources: OSV, CVE.org

Public exploit

What is affected, what to do

An exploit is publicly available. Update Sigstore Cosign to version 3.0.4, Sigstore Cosign to version 2.6.2.

Affected: Sigstore Cosign lt *..3.0.4
Sigstore Cosign lt *..2.6.2
Fixed in: Sigstore Cosign 3.0.4
Sigstore Cosign 2.6.2

Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

Metrics

5.5

Priority

XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

Source: NVD, CVSS v3

5.5

CVSS v3

Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

Source: OSV, CVE.org

0.1 %

EPSS score

Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 1.1

Show all metrics

Severity: Medium
Priority (0–325) The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first? Read in glossary: 40.89 Methodology
Exploit maturity An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack. Read in glossary: PoC (publicly reported)
XIEM Effective CVSS XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command. Read in glossary: 5.5 Methodology
CVSS v3 CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions. Read in glossary: 5.5
EPSS score The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“. Read in glossary: 0.1 %; Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking. Read in glossary: 1.1; Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
KEV status The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching. Read in glossary: —
Published: 10.01.2026
CISA assessment (SSVC): Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: partial; Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 12 January 2026
CWE CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect. Read in glossary: CWE-345

Detection rules

No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

Classification under NIS2 and CRA

Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

NIS2 NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management. Read in glossary: Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates. Read in glossary: From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security. Read in glossary: Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

Description

Cosign provides code signing and transparency for containers and binaries. Prior to versions 2.6.2 and 3.0.4, Cosign bundle can be crafted to successfully verify an artifact even if the embedded Rekor entry does not reference the artifact's digest, signature or public key. When verifying a Rekor entry, Cosign verifies the Rekor entry signature, and also compares the artifact's digest, the user's public key from either a Fulcio certificate or provided by the user, and the artifact signature to the Rekor entry contents. Without these comparisons, Cosign would accept any response from Rekor as valid. A malicious actor that has compromised a user's identity or signing key could construct a valid Cosign bundle by including any arbitrary Rekor entry, thus preventing the user from being able to audit the signing event. This issue has been patched in versions 2.6.2 and 3.0.4.

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), CVE.org (MITRE)

Affected products

The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

Affected products
		Affected versions	Fixed in
sigstore	cosign	`< 2.6.2` `< 3.0.4` `3.0.0 – < 3.0.4` `< 2.6.2`	`2.6.2` `3.0.4` `3.0.4` `2.6.2`
go	github.com/sigstore/cosign/v2	`—`	—
go	github.com/sigstore/cosign/v3	`—`	—

Vendors and products

Weakness classes (CWE)

CWE-345Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity
Class
The product does not sufficiently verify the origin or authenticity of data, in a way that causes it to accept invalid data.
Entry at MITRE CWE-345

Public exploit references

Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

Public exploit references

Reference tagged as exploit	github.com (opens in a new tab)	PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified	—

References & sources

github.comsigstore/cosign/security/advisories/GHSA-whqx-f9j3-ch6madvisory, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Exploit, Vendor advisory
NVD (NIST)vuln/detail/CVE-2026-22703advisory
github.comsigstore/cosign/commit/6832fba4928c1ad69400235bbc41212de5006176fix, x_refsource_MISC, Patch
github.comsigstore/cosign/pull/4623fix, x_refsource_MISC, Issue tracking
github.comsigstore/cosignpackage

Embed badge

Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.

<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2026-22703"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2026-22703.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2026-22703 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>