Description
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: 2026-09-27
Score: 7.1 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
AI Analysis

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Remediation

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History

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Edgelesssys
Edgelesssys contrast
Vendors & Products Edgelesssys
Edgelesssys contrast

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description 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.
Title Contrast before 1.4.1 Coordinator Impersonation via Unauthenticated Recovery
Weaknesses CWE-285
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 7.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


Subscriptions

Edgelesssys Contrast
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-27T01:28:27.915Z

Reserved: 2026-09-27T00:18:28.650Z

Link: CVE-2025-71426

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-27T02:17:17.160

Modified: 2026-09-27T02:17:17.160

Link: CVE-2025-71426

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-09-27T11:43:00Z

Weaknesses