CVE-2023-28431
HIGHDescription
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.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
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
Moderate risk: more likely to be exploited than 56% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-682 vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2022-30780 | High | 7.5 | 56% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2020-14422 | Medium | 5.9 | 13% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2016-7433 | Medium | 5.3 | 9.8% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2023-35641 | High | 8.8 | 7.2% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2018-8319 | Critical | 9.8 | 7.0% | - | - |
| CVE-2020-0022 | High | 8.8 | 6.1% | - | Fix |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2023-28431?
Upgrade frontier to 2023-03-15 or later.
Is CVE-2023-28431 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2023-28431 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 0.87% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 56% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2023-28431?
CVE-2023-28431 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5, rated high. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2023-28431 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for frontier (NVD). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
Embed a live status badge for CVE-2023-28431
Markdown
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This 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 2024-11-21.