Reported by 3 outlets
Docker Hub flaw let attackers impersonate users, tamper with images
Why this score
- Breadth
- 1.50 / 2.0 · 3 sources
- Authority
- 1.80 / 2.0 · best outlet weight
- Severity
- 1.30 / 5.0 · CVSS + content signals
- Velocity
- 1.50 / 2.0 · updates in 48h
- Pickup speed
- 0.43 / 0.6 · time to second source
- Recency
- × 0.70 temporal multiplier
- Community
- + 0.40 / 1.5 · reddit signal
- Score
- 5.0 / 10 = base × recency + community
Desk analysis
CVE-2026-105445 was a flaw in Docker Hub's account-to-organization conversion. From August 26, 2024, converting a personal account also reassigned its personal access tokens to whatever existing user the converter named as the new organization's owner: the token's owner record changed, the secret never rotated, and no consent or notification was requested. An attacker could create an account, mint a PAT, convert, and name a victim, ending up with a live credential that authenticated to the registry as that victim and carried the victim's org memberships. Peter Molnar and Krisztian Hozak of mptrdev.com, publishing the details as GhostPat, reproduced it twice on September 28 and 29, 2026; Docker fixed production the same afternoon the report arrived, under four hours end to end, and its audit of every conversion in the window plus roughly 304,000 pushes made with transferred tokens found no evidence of exploitation.
The headline frames this as image tampering, but the read half is the sharper risk: the researchers confirmed the minted token could pull the target's private repositories, so the quiet version of this attack is not poisoning at all, it is exfiltration of whatever private images the victim can read, internal build details and baked-in credentials in tow. And "no evidence of exploitation" is narrower than it sounds: Docker itself notes registry logs show when a token was used, not that it existed, so a transferred PAT created and never used leaves no trace, and the October 8 force-deactivation carried an opt-out, so some transferred tokens may have outlived the cleanup. The exposed set is small and self-identifying: Docker emailed only users whose accounts received transferred tokens, on October 2, so absence of that mail means no exposure. The story still matters because the root cause is a missing consent step in the identity layer of the default registry, exactly the class of design flaw that tends to repeat across other flows.
If the October 2 email with the subject line "Docker Hub Vulnerability Identified & Resolved" reached anyone on your team, treat every token it lists as compromised until re-issued; that mail names in-scope tokens by description and creation date. Regardless, audit Account settings, then Personal access tokens, on every Hub account your team controls and revoke anything unneeded, judging by creation date rather than name, since a minted token's name is attacker-chosen and a familiar-looking name proves nothing. Check the account switcher for organizations nobody remembers joining, the second trace the technique leaves, and prefer organization access tokens over personal PATs for shared automation. In your own registry telemetry, the specific hunt is one credential authenticating under more than one identity, plus bearer exchanges against POST /v2/auth/token from unfamiliar clients.
Two developments would move this assessment. The first is Docker's structural follow-through: it has promised consent before a user can be named an organization owner, an auditable history of token ownership changes, and a review of other credential-ownership flows for the same pattern, and any slippage or second finding there widens the blast radius. The second is whether the same conversion-reassigns-credentials pattern exists in other registries such as GHCR, Quay, or GitLab's, which would turn a Docker incident into a registry-design class. Confirmation of the researchers' unconfirmed worst case, that official library/ images are publishable through the same path from a plain account, would put the severity far above anything currently scored.
Timeline
-
original reporting
Docker Hub flaw let attackers impersonate users, tamper with images
bleepingcomputer.com · 12h ago · October 13th, 2026
Docker has disclosed a critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-105445) in Docker Hub that let attackers access another user’s container repositories using a personal access token (PAT). Docker Hub is an online registry for storing, sharing, and downloading container images - templates that package everything needed for an application to run in an isolated environment. In Docker Hub, a PAT serves as a secret used to authenticate tools and workflows. It allows you to pull, push, or delete container images. According to a security bulletin from the Docker team, an attacker could create an account and PAT, then convert the account into an organization and name a target user as its owner. The CVE-2026-105445 flaw stems from Docker Hub reassigning a personal access token (PAT) to a designated organization owner without changing its secret or obtaining the target's consent. This allowed the attacker to use the token to authenticate as the target. Depending on the token’s scope and the target’s permissions, attackers could pull, push, or delete images in the target’s repositories and accessible organizations. “Within the scope of the token, a re-assigned PAT acted as the target user at the registry level, meaning an attacker could potentially pull, push, and/or delete images in the target’s repositories and in organizations where the target had access,” Docker explained . “Because that includes publishing images under a legitimate name, we treated this as a software supply chain risk and ra
-
update from docker.com
Docker Hub security advisory: personal access tokens transferred during account-to-organization conversions
docker.com · 1d ago · October 12th, 2026
Docker CISO Mark Lechner confirmed that account-to-organization conversions reassigned the converted account's personal access tokens to the newly named owner without rotating the secret or asking consent, a behavior present since August 26, 2024. The report arrived September 30, 2026 and a production fix shipped the same day in under four hours; exposed users were notified October 2 and transferred PATs were force-deactivated October 8. Docker reviewed every conversion in the window and about 304,000 pushes made with transferred tokens, finding no evidence of exploitation.
-
update from ghostpat.com
GhostPat: a ghost token in your Docker account
ghostpat.com · 1d ago · October 13th, 2026
Peter Molnar and Krisztian Hozak of mptrdev.com describe how a throwaway Docker Hub account converted to an organization with a target named as owner yields a token that authenticates as that target, which they used to push to the target's namespace and pull the target's private repositories with no notification to the victim. First reproduction on 2026-09-28, a second independent reproduction on 2026-09-29, report to security@docker.com on 2026-09-30. They also flag, unconfirmed, a worst case in which the official library images sit in the same conversion path. The page carries no publish time of day; its footer states updated 2026-10-13.
-
update from www.bleepingcomputer.com
🤖 CVE-2026-105445 (critical): Docker Hub reassigned a user's PAT to a new org owner without rotating the secret, so the attacker's token aut
www.bleepingcomputer.com · 9h ago · October 13th, 2026
🤖 CVE-2026-105445 (critical): Docker Hub reassigned a user's PAT to a new org owner without rotating the secret, so the attacker's token aut
via Mastodon https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/docker-hub-flaw-let-attackers-impersonate-users-tamper-with-images/
-
update from securityonline.info
Read the latest Docker Hub security advisory regarding CVE-2026-105445. Learn how this critical access token vulnerability impacts supply ch
securityonline.info · 9h ago · October 13th, 2026
Read the latest Docker Hub security advisory regarding CVE-2026-105445. Learn how this critical access token vulnerability impacts supply ch
via Mastodon https://securityonline.info/docker-hub-security-advisory-cve-2026-105445/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social
-
update from en.hacks.gr
A vulnerability in Docker Hub, tracked as CVE-2026-105445 and named GhostPat, allowed unauthorized users to push, pull, or delete container
en.hacks.gr · 4h ago · October 13th, 2026
A vulnerability in Docker Hub, tracked as CVE-2026-105445 and named GhostPat, allowed unauthorized users to push, pull, or delete container
via Mastodon https://en.hacks.gr/to-docker-hub-diorthose-sovaro-provlima-asfaleias-poy-emeine-anoichto-gia-dyo-chronia/