Executive brief
Contrast is a confidential computing orchestration platform that uses trusted hardware to protect sensitive workloads. Before version 1.16.0, the system accepted attestation reports from any machine with the correct measurements, allowing an attacker with network access and physical control of a single TEE device to relay forged attestation reports and impersonate authorized Coordinators or workloads, compromising identity verification in the attested TLS layer.
Technical details
The vulnerability arises from attestation reports not being bound to specific hardware instances; Contrast verified TEE attestation evidence based on correctness and expected firmware/measurements without validating the physical identity of the originating machine. An attacker must intercept network traffic between the CLI and Coordinator or between Coordinator and attested component, and can exploit physical attacks on a single TEE to extract secrets or forge reports. The fix in v1.16.0 introduces optional manifest fields (AllowedChipIDs for SEV-SNP, AllowedPIIDs for TDX) to restrict validation to trusted hardware with known physical protection.
Affected products
- Edgeless Systems Contrast before 1.16.0
Timeline
- 2026-09-27: disclosed