---
id: CVE-2025-54059
aliases:
  - GHSA-5662-cv6m-63wh
  - GO-2025-3815
title: >-
  melange's world-writable permissions expose SBOM files to potential image
  tampering
summary: >-
  melange's world-writable permissions expose SBOM files to potential image
  tampering
severity: medium
cvss: 4.4
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L'
vendor: melange
product: chainguard.dev/melange
ecosystem: go
affected:
  - 'chainguard.dev/melange >= 0.23.0, < 0.29.5'
patched:
  - chainguard.dev/melange 0.29.5
published: '2025-07-18'
updated: '2026-09-10'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-10T03:50:25.741848940Z'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-5662-cv6m-63wh'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/security/advisories/GHSA-5662-cv6m-63wh
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54059'
  - url: 'https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/pull/1836'
  - url: 'https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/pull/2086'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/commit/1b272db2a0bb3441553284cc56d87236b4b64c04
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/commit/e29494b4a40a91619ec1c87a09003c6d5164cea1
  - url: 'https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange'
  - url: 'https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/releases/tag/v0.29.5'
tags:
  - osv
  - go
epss: 0.00134
epssPercentile: 0.02377
ingestedAt: '2026-09-12T03:13:01.754Z'
---

## Overview

It was discovered that the SBOM files generated by melange in apks had file system permissions mode 666:
```
$ apkrane ls https://packages.wolfi.dev/os/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz -P hello-wolfi --full --latest  | xargs wget -q -O  - | tar tzv 2>/dev/null var/lib/db/sbom
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2025-06-23 14:17 var/lib/db/sbom
-rw-rw-rw- root/root      3383 2025-06-23 14:17 var/lib/db/sbom/hello-wolfi-2.12.2-r1.spdx.json
```

This issue was introduced in commit 1b272db ("Persist workspace filesystem throughout package builds (#1836)") ([v0.23.0](https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/releases/tag/v0.23.0)).

### Impact
This potentially allows an unprivileged user to tamper with apk SBOMs on a running image, potentially confusing security scanners. An attacker could also perform a DoS under special circumstances.

### Patches
This issue was addressed in melange in e29494b ("fix: tighten up permissions for written SBOM files and signature tarballs (#2086)") ([v0.29.5](https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange/releases/tag/v0.29.5)).

## Acknowledgements

Thanks to Cody Harris [H2O.ai](https://h2o.ai/) and Markus Boehme for independently reporting this issue.

## Affected packages

- `chainguard.dev/melange >= 0.23.0, < 0.29.5`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `chainguard.dev/melange 0.29.5`