CVE-2002-20001
HIGHEPSS 97th pctlDescription
The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol allows remote attackers (from the client side) to send arbitrary numbers that are actually not public keys, and trigger expensive server-side DHE modular-exponentiation calculations, aka a D(HE)at or D(HE)ater attack. The client needs very little CPU resources and network bandwidth. The attack may be more disruptive in cases where a client can require a server to select its largest supported key size. The basic attack scenario is that the client must claim that it can only communicate with DHE, and the server must be configured to allow DHE.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
Very high risk: more likely to be exploited than 97% of all known CVEs.
References
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-506569.pdf
- https://dheatattack.com
- https://dheatattack.gitlab.io/
- https://github.com/Balasys/dheater
- https://github.com/mozilla/ssl-config-generator/issues/162
- https://gitlab.com/dheatattack/dheater
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10374117
- https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K83120834
- https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/alert/ARUBA-PSA-2022-004.txt
- https://www.openssl.org/blog/blog/2022/10/21/tls-groups-configuration/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/qdoosy/server_overload_by_enforcing_dhe_key_exchange/
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton-Stiglic-2/publication/2401745_Security_Issues_in_the_Diffie-Hellman_Key_Agreement_Protocol
- https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000020510
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Start freeThis product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-08-22.