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nimiq-keys: Unchecked Ed25519 signature length in TaggedPublicKey::verify causes remote node panic via DHT

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 15, 2026 in nimiq/core-rs-albatross • Updated Jun 8, 2026

Package

cargo nimiq-keys (Rust)

Affected versions

<= 0.2.0

Patched versions

None

Description

Impact

A malicious network peer can crash any Nimiq full node by publishing a crafted Kademlia DHT record containing a TaggedSigned<ValidatorRecord, KeyPair> with a signature field whose byte length is not exactly 64. When the victim node's DHT verifier calls TaggedSigned::verify, execution reaches Ed25519Signature::from_bytes(sig).unwrap() in the TaggedPublicKey implementation for Ed25519PublicKey. The from_bytes call fails because ed25519_zebra::Signature::try_from rejects slices not 64 bytes, and the unwrap() panics. The BLS TaggedPublicKey implementation correctly returns false on error; only the Ed25519 implementation panics.

Patches

The patch for this vulnerability is formally released as part of v1.4.0.

Workarounds

No known workarounds.

Resources

See PR.

References

@jsdanielh jsdanielh published to nimiq/core-rs-albatross May 15, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 15, 2026
Reviewed May 15, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 20, 2026
Last updated Jun 8, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(8th percentile)

Weaknesses

Unchecked Return Value

The product does not check the return value from a method or function, which can prevent it from detecting unexpected states and conditions. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-40092

GHSA ID

GHSA-27w2-87xv-37c6

Source code

Credits

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