Answer in brief
CVE-2026-48758 records a Medium severity (CVSS 5.4) vulnerability in @sigstore/core has DSSE payloadType type-binding failure. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps @sigstore/core (npm), @sigstore/core (npm). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 5.4. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps @sigstore/core (npm), @sigstore/core (npm). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| @sigstore/corenpm | <=3.2.0 | 3.2.1 |
| @sigstore/corenpm | >=0 <3.2.1 | 3.2.1 |
Published upstream
Jun 26, 2026
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Jun 26, 2026
### Impact The `preAuthEncoding` function in `@sigstore/core` uses Node.js `'ascii'` encoding when converting the PAE (Pre-Authentication Encoding) string to bytes. This allows `payloadType` to be mutated after signing without invalidating the signature, breaking the type-binding guarantee that DSSE is designed to provide. In `packages/core/src/dsse.ts`, the PAE function builds a string containing `payloadType` and then encodes it with `Buffer.from(prefix, 'ascii')`. In Node.js, `'ascii'` encoding for string-to-Buffer is equivalent to `'latin1'`, which **truncates characters above U+00FF to their low byte**. This means for any ASCII character, there exist Unicode characters (at U+01xx, U+02xx, etc.) that produce the identical encoded byte: | Original | Codepoint | Mutant | Codepoint | Encoded byte | |----------|-----------|--------|-----------|--------------| | `t` | U+0074 | `Ŵ` | U+0174 | `0x74` | | `e` | U+0065 | `ť` | U+0165 | `0x65` | An attacker can substitute every character in `payloadType` with a Unicode variant whose low byte matches, producing **identical PAE bytes** and a passing signature verification. Additionally, `payloadType.length` returns the JavaScript string length (UTF-16 code units) rather than the UTF-8 byte length required by the DSSE spec, though this is only a contributing factor for non-ASCII types. #### Reproduction ```javascript const { preAuthEncoding } = require('@sigstore/core/dist/dsse.js'); const payload = Buffer.from('hello world'); const original = preAuthEncoding('text/plain', payload); // U+01xx chars whose low bytes match the original ASCII chars const mutant = preAuthEncoding('\u0174\u0165\u0178\u0174/\u0170\u016c\u0161\u0169\u016e', payload); console.log('PAE bytes equal:', original.equals(mutant)); // true — should be false ```
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.