A critical vulnerability in the Tauri updater plugin allows attackers to perform software downgrade attacks, potentially facilitating the installation of malicious or vulnerable application versions.

This is an improper access control vulnerability (CWE-284) where the updater plugin's check IPC command improperly exposes an allowDowngrades parameter to the frontend, allowing an unauthenticated attacker who has achieved cross-site scripting (XSS) to bypass version verification.

The ability to force a software downgrade presents a significant risk to application integrity and security. By forcing a user to revert to an older, potentially vulnerable version of an application, an attacker can bypass modern security patches and exploit known flaws, leading to unauthorized access, data theft, or system compromise. With a CVSS score of 6.8, this vulnerability represents a substantial risk to environments relying on the auto-update mechanism for security maintenance.

Immediate Action: Upgrade tauri-plugin-updater to version 2.12.0 or later, which removes the exposed parameter and moves the configuration to a secure, backend-only location.

Proactive Monitoring: Monitor application update logs for frequent or unexpected version rollbacks that do not align with standard deployment schedules.

Compensating Controls: Implement robust Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate the risk of XSS attacks, which serve as the primary vector for triggering this vulnerability.

Public Exploit Available: No (exploit_available: false)

Organizations utilizing the Tauri framework must prioritize updating the tauri-plugin-updater component to version 2.12.0. Because this vulnerability facilitates downgrade attacks that can re-introduce previously patched security flaws, it should be treated as a high priority for any application that enables auto-updates for its end users.