Auth bypass in Edgelesssys Contrast
CVE-2025-71426
Contrast is a confidential-computing runtime for Kubernetes. In versions before 1.4.1, a recovering Coordinator does not verify the seed supplied by the recovering party. An attacker can therefore stand up a rogue Coordinator whose manifest passes validation but whose secret seed is attacker-controlled. If network traffic is redirected from the legitimate Coordinator to the attacker's Coordinator, a workload owner can be impersonated when they either set a new manifest without comparing the returned root CA certificate against the existing one (the default behavior of the contrast CLI) or verify the Coordinator without comparing the root CA certificate against a trusted reference. Under these conditions the attacker can issue certificates that chain back to the rogue Coordinator's root CA and recover arbitrary workload secrets of workloads deployed after the attack. Secrets of the legitimate Coordinator (seed, workload secrets, CA), workload integrity, and certificates chaining to the mesh CA are not affected.
Published .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.1 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N.
EPSS exploit prediction
No EPSS score from FIRST.org yet. New CVEs usually get one within a few days; no score means no signal yet, not low risk. How EPSS works.
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/edgelesssys/contrast/security/advisories/GHSA-vqv5-385r-2hf8 (vendor-advisory)
- www.vulncheck.com/advisories/contrast-before-1.4.1-coordinator-impersonation-vi… (third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-71426?
- CVE-2025-71426 is a high-severity vulnerability in Edgelesssys Contrast, classified under Improper Authorization. CVSS score: 7.1/10. Published 2026-09-27.
- How severe is CVE-2025-71426?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.1 out of 10.