CVE-2020-15185

LOW2.2EPSS 0.23%

Repository index file allows for duplicates of the same chart entry in helm

Published: 5/24/2021Modified: 3/13/2026
Also known as:GHSA-jm56-5h66-w453BIT-helm-2020-15185

Description

### Impact During a security audit of Helm's code base, security researchers at Trail of Bits identified a bug in which the a Helm repository can contain duplicates of the same chart, with the last one always used. If a repository is compromised, this lowers the level of access that an attacker needs to inject a bad chart into a repository. To perform this attack, an attacker must have write access to the index file (which can occur during a MITM attack on a non-SSL connection). ### Specific Go Packages Affected helm.sh/helm/v3/pkg/repo ### Patches This issue has been patched in Helm 3.3.2 and 2.16.11 ### Workarounds - do not install charts from repositories you do not trust - fetch charts using a secure channel of communication (such as TLS) - use `helm pull` to fetch the chart, then review the chart’s content (either manually, or with `helm verify` if it has been signed) to ensure it has not been tampered with - manually review the index file in the Helm repository cache before installing software.

Affected packages (3)

CVSS scores

SourceVersionSeverityVector
osvCVSS 3.1LOW2.2CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

References (4)