Credential theft and image poisoning via mutable action
Published Sep 16, 2026 · Updated Oct 7, 2026
Supply-chain exposure in Red Hat Quay 3 allows remote attackers to steal registry credentials or publish malicious builder images. The quay-builder-qemu build-and-publish workflow invokes a third-party action from a mutable master branch after logging in to the registry, exposing the push token and default GitHub token to changed action code. Exploitation requires control of that upstream action or branch; a poisoned builder image can then reach Quay build executors.
Summary
What happened
Supply-chain exposure in Red Hat Quay 3 allows remote attackers to steal registry credentials or publish malicious builder images. The quay-builder-qemu build-and-publish workflow invokes a third-party action from a mutable master branch after logging in to the registry, exposing the push token and default GitHub token to changed action code. Exploitation requires control of that upstream action or branch; a poisoned builder image can then reach Quay build executors.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-85469
- Published
- Sep 16, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 7, 2026
- Vendor
- libuser Project
- Product
- Red Hat Quay
- Classifications
- CWE-494, CWE-829, CWE-1357, T1195.001
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 16, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 7, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Affected versions are unavailable in this record. Check the vendor advisory for version and patch details.
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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