BLS Signature "Malleability"
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · High · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-347.
Summary
Lotus is an Implementation of the Filecoin protocol written in Go. BLS signature validation in lotus uses blst library method VerifyCompressed. This method accepts signatures in 2 forms: "serialized", and "compressed", meaning that BLS signatures can be provided as either of 2 unique byte arrays. Lotus block validation functions perform a uniqueness check on provided blocks. Two blocks are considered distinct if the CIDs of their blockheader do not match. The CID method for blockheader includes the BlockSig of the block. The result of these issues is that it would be possible to punish miners for valid blocks, as there are two different valid block CIDs available for each block, even though this must be unique. By switching from the go based `blst` bindings over to the bindings in `filecoin-ffi`, the code paths now ensure that all signatures are compressed by size and the way they are deserialized. This happened in https://github.com/filecoin-project/lotus/pull/5393.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| filecoin-project | lotus | before 1.5.0 | 1.5.0 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/filecoin-project/lotus (Go) | before 1.5.0 | 1.5.0 | Patch available | GHSA-4g52-pqcj-phvh |
- lotus Vendorfilecoin-project Affected before 1.5.0 Fixed in 1.5.0 Patch available CNA
- github.com/filecoin-project/lotus (Go) Vendor— Affected before 1.5.0 Fixed in 1.5.0 Patch available GHSA-4g52-pqcj-phvh
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:filecoin:lotus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 1.5.0 | Vulnerable | filecoin-project |
- cpe:2.3:a:filecoin:lotus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 1.5.0 Vulnerable ·filecoin-project
Remediation
- Fix · CNA lotus (filecoin-project) Fixed in 1.5.0
- Fix · GHSA-4g52-pqcj-phvh github.com/filecoin-project/lotus (Go) Fixed in 1.5.0 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-21405
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-4g52-pqcj-phvh
References
Sources
- CVE-2021-21405 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-21405 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-4g52-pqcj-phvh · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences