VulnerabilityPublished 23 Mar 2026Updated 30 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-33634: aquasecurity trivy · Embedded Malicious Code

Affects aquasecurity trivySource CVE Database V5

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Exploited in the wild · KEV due 9 Apr 2026 · 59% EPSS · fixed in 0.2.6 : patch aquasecurity trivy now.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

9.4Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

KEV deadline: 9 Apr 2026 US federal agencies must patch by this date; a sensible deadline for everyone else. Other KEV due dates
EPSS: 59.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 99% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.2.6, 0.35.0, 0.34.3

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High
Vulnerable system integrity: High
Vulnerable system availability: High
Subsequent system confidentiality: High
Subsequent system integrity: High
Subsequent system availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all information within the Vulnerable System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Vulnerable system integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the vulnerable system. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability: High: There is a total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the Vulnerable System; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).
Subsequent system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the Subsequent System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Subsequent system integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the Subsequent System. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the Subsequent System.
Subsequent system availability: High: There is a total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the Subsequent System; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the Subsequent System (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 23 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: evidence found.
Public exploit code: GitHub proofs of concept
Exploited in the wildExploited: evidence found.
Listed in CISA KEV 3 days after disclosure
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

CVE ID reserved
by GitHub, Inc.
23 Mar 202614:24 UTC, 7 hours before disclosure
CVE published
on cve.org
23 Mar 202621:47 UTC, t = 0
In Threat Radar
record ingested
23 Mar 202622:00 UTC, 13 minutes after disclosure
Added to CISA KEV (opens in a new tab)
exploitation confirmed
26 Mar 2026, 3 days after disclosure
KEV remediation due
US federal deadline
9 Apr 2026, 17 days after disclosure

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), GitHub proofs of concept, CISA KEV (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade setup-trivy and aquasecurity/setup-trivy to 0.2.6; trivy-action to 0.35.0; aquasecurity/trivy-action to 0.34.3.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
aquasecuritysetup-trivy	Affected <0.2.6	Fixed in 0.2.6
aquasecuritytrivy-action	Affected <0.35.0	Fixed in 0.35.0
aquasecuritytrivy	Affected =0.69.4	Fixed in–
BerriAILiteLLM	Affected >=1.82.7 <=1.82.8	Fixed in–
team-telnyxtelnyx	Affected >=4.87.1 <=4.87.2	Fixed in–
GitHubaquasecurity/setup-trivy`pkg:github/aquasecurity/setup-trivy`Other threats	Affected <0.2.6	Fixed in 0.2.6

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

Trivy is a security scanner. On March 19, 2026, a threat actor used compromised credentials to publish a malicious Trivy v0.69.4 release, force-push 76 of 77 version tags in `aquasecurity/trivy-action` to credential-stealing malware, and replace all 7 tags in `aquasecurity/setup-trivy` with malicious commits. This incident is a continuation of the supply chain attack that began in late February 2026. Following the initial disclosure on March 1, credential rotation was performed but was not atomic (not all credentials were revoked simultaneously). The attacker could have use a valid token to exfiltrate newly rotated secrets during the rotation window (which lasted a few days). This could have allowed the attacker to retain access and execute the March 19 attack. Affected components include the `aquasecurity/trivy` Go / Container image version 0.69.4, the `aquasecurity/trivy-action` GitHub Action versions 0.0.1 – 0.34.2 (76/77), and the`aquasecurity/setup-trivy` GitHub Action versions 0.2.0 – 0.2.6, prior to the recreation of 0.2.6 with a safe commit. Known safe versions include versions 0.69.2 and 0.69.3 of the Trivy binary, version 0.35.0 of trivy-action, and version 0.2.6 of setup-trivy. Additionally, take other mitigations to ensure the safety of secrets. If there is any possibility that a compromised version ran in one's environment, all secrets accessible to affected pipelines must be treated as exposed and rotated immediately. Check whether one's organization pulled or executed Trivy v0.69.4 from any source. Remove any affected artifacts immediately. Review all workflows using `aquasecurity/trivy-action` or `aquasecurity/setup-trivy`. Those who referenced a version tag rather than a full commit SHA should check workflow run logs from March 19–20, 2026 for signs of compromise. Look for repositories named `tpcp-docs` in one's GitHub organization. The presence of such a repository may indicate that the fallback exfiltration mechanism was triggered and secrets were successfully stolen. Pin GitHub Actions to full, immutable commit SHA hashes, don't use mutable version tags.

Impact

The attack allowed malicious code insertion into widely used security scanning tools and GitHub Actions, potentially enabling credential theft and unauthorized access to secrets in CI/CD pipelines. The compromise of version tags and releases means users who pulled affected versions risked executing malicious code. Secrets accessible to affected workflows must be considered exposed. The incident undermines trust in the affected components and may lead to further downstream compromise if secrets are reused or not rotated. The CVSS 4.0 score of 9.4 reflects critical impact across confidentiality, integrity, availability, and security controls.

Mitigation

Users must immediately remove any affected artifacts and check if Trivy v0.69.4 or affected trivy-action/setup-trivy versions were used. All secrets accessible to affected pipelines should be treated as compromised and rotated immediately. Review workflow run logs from March 19–20, 2026 for signs of compromise, especially if version tags rather than immutable commit SHAs were used. Look for suspicious repositories named 'tpcp-docs' as indicators of exfiltration. To prevent similar attacks, pin GitHub Actions to full immutable commit SHA hashes instead of mutable version tags. Patch status is not explicitly confirmed; users should consult vendor advisories for updates.

Summary

CVE-2026-33634 describes a critical supply chain vulnerability in the aquasecurity Trivy project, specifically affecting the setup-trivy GitHub Action and related components. Attackers leveraged compromised credentials to publish a malicious Trivy v0.69.4 release and force-push malicious commits to nearly all version tags of aquasecurity/trivy-action and setup-trivy repositories. The incident is a continuation of an earlier credential compromise where incomplete rotation allowed attackers to maintain access and execute the March 19 attack. Affected versions include setup-trivy versions prior to 0.2.6, trivy-action versions 0.0.1 through 0.34.2, and Trivy binary v0.69.4. Known safe versions are Trivy v0.69.2 and v0.69.3, trivy-action v0.35.0, and setup-trivy v0.2.6 with a safe commit. The attack potentially exposed secrets accessible to affected CI/CD pipelines. The vulnerability is scored 9.4 CVSS 4.0 (critical) with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no user interaction, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability, and security controls.

CWE-506Embedded Malicious Code (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessOWASP Top 10 A08:2025: Software or Data Integrity Failures (opens in a new tab)
The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.
Implementation · Operation
Remove the malicious code and start an effort to ensure that no more malicious code exists. This may require a detailed review of all code, as it is possible to hide a serious attack in only one or two lines of code.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Software Supply Chain Security (opens in a new tab)
Infrastructure as Code (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Infected Software (opens in a new tab)
Embed Virus into DLL (opens in a new tab)
Hiding Malicious Data or Code within Files (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

Timeline

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Apr 2026, 13:08 UTC

Public exploits and detectionGitHub proofs of concept

WeaknessesCWE-506

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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