PT-2021-11554 · Elliptic · Elliptic

Kyle Den Hartog · Published 2021-02-02 · Updated 2024-10-16 · CVE-2020-28498

Positive Technologies (AI Summary)

CVSS v3.1

6.8

Medium

Base vector

AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions: elliptic versions prior to 6.5.4

Description: The issue is related to Cryptographic Issues via the secp256k1 implementation in elliptic/ec/key.js. There is no check to confirm that the public key point passed into the derive function actually exists on the secp256k1 curve. This results in the potential for the private key used in this implementation to be revealed after a number of ECDH operations are performed.

Recommendations: For versions prior to 6.5.4, update to version 6.5.4 or later to resolve the issue. As a temporary workaround, consider restricting the use of the derive function in elliptic/ec/key.js until a patch is available. Restrict access to the secp256k1 implementation to minimize the risk of exploitation. Avoid using the derive function with unverified public key points until the issue is resolved.

Fix

Use of a Broken Cryptographic Algorithm

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-327

Related Identifiers

CVE-2020-28498

GHSA-R9P9-MRJM-926W

SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-1069836

SNYK-JS-ELLIPTIC-1064899

Affected Products

Elliptic

References · 16

• https://github.com/indutny/elliptic/commit/441b7428b0e8f6636c42118ad2aaa186d3c34c3f · Patch
• https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-ELLIPTIC-1064899 · Patch
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-28498 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28498 · Vendor Advisory
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-28498 · Security Note
• https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-28498 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28498 · Vendor Advisory
• https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-1069836 · Patch
• https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-28498 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-r9p9-mrjm-926w · Vendor Advisory
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-28498 · Vendor Advisory
• https://github.com/indutny/elliptic/pull/244/commits · Note
• https://t.me/cibsecurity/22969 · Telegram Post
• ❌ https://github.com/christianlundkvist/blog/blob/master/2020_05_26_secp256k1_twist_attacks/secp256k1_twist_attacks.md · Note, Deleted
• https://npmjs.com/package/elliptic · Note