7.5
HIGH
CVE-2023-28431
Frontier Montgomery Precompile Denial of Service Vulnerability
Description

Frontier is an Ethereum compatibility layer for Substrate. Frontier's `modexp` precompile uses `num-bigint` crate under the hood. In the implementation prior to pull request 1017, the cases for modulus being even and modulus being odd are treated separately. Odd modulus uses the fast Montgomery multiplication, and even modulus uses the slow plain power algorithm. This gas cost discrepancy was not accounted for in the `modexp` precompile, leading to possible denial of service attacks. No fixes for `num-bigint` are currently available, and thus this issue is fixed in the short term by raising the gas costs for even modulus, and in the long term fixing it in `num-bigint` or switching to another modexp implementation. The short-term fix for Frontier is deployed at pull request 1017. There are no known workarounds aside from applying the fix.

INFO

Published Date :

March 22, 2023, 9:15 p.m.

Last Modified :

Nov. 7, 2023, 4:10 a.m.

Remotely Exploitable :

Yes !

Impact Score :

3.6

Exploitability Score :

3.9
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2023-28431 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Parity frontier
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2023-28431 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2023-28431 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 14, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 07, 2023

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Changed Description Frontier is an Ethereum compatibility layer for Substrate. Frontier's `modexp` precompile uses `num-bigint` crate under the hood. In the implementation prior to pull request 1017, the cases for modulus being even and modulus being odd are treated separately. Odd modulus uses the fast Montgomery multiplication, and even modulus uses the slow plain power algorithm. This gas cost discrepancy was not accounted for in the `modexp` precompile, leading to possible denial of service attacks. No fixes for `num-bigint` are currently available, and thus this issue is fixed in the short term by raising the gas costs for even modulus, and in the long term fixing it in `num-bigint` or switching to another modexp implementation. The short-term fix for Frontier is deployed at pull request 1017. There are no known workarounds aside from applying the fix. Frontier is an Ethereum compatibility layer for Substrate. Frontier's `modexp` precompile uses `num-bigint` crate under the hood. In the implementation prior to pull request 1017, the cases for modulus being even and modulus being odd are treated separately. Odd modulus uses the fast Montgomery multiplication, and even modulus uses the slow plain power algorithm. This gas cost discrepancy was not accounted for in the `modexp` precompile, leading to possible denial of service attacks. No fixes for `num-bigint` are currently available, and thus this issue is fixed in the short term by raising the gas costs for even modulus, and in the long term fixing it in `num-bigint` or switching to another modexp implementation. The short-term fix for Frontier is deployed at pull request 1017. There are no known workarounds aside from applying the fix.
  • Initial Analysis by [email protected]

    Mar. 28, 2023

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V3.1 NIST AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
    Changed Reference Type https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/5af12e94d7dfc8a0208a290643a800f55de7b219 No Types Assigned https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/5af12e94d7dfc8a0208a290643a800f55de7b219 Patch
    Changed Reference Type https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/1017 No Types Assigned https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/1017 Patch
    Changed Reference Type https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-fcmm-54jp-7vf6 No Types Assigned https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-fcmm-54jp-7vf6 Vendor Advisory
    Changed Reference Type https://github.com/rust-num/num-bigint/blob/6f2b8e0fc218dbd0f49bebb8db2d1a771fe6bafa/src/biguint/power.rs#L134 No Types Assigned https://github.com/rust-num/num-bigint/blob/6f2b8e0fc218dbd0f49bebb8db2d1a771fe6bafa/src/biguint/power.rs#L134 Product
    Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:a:parity:frontier:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions up to (excluding) 2023-03-15
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2023-28431 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2023-28431 weaknesses.

Exploit Prediction

EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days.

0.22 }} 0.06%

score

0.60390

percentile

CVSS31 - Vulnerability Scoring System
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability