ECDSA signature malleability in OpenZeppelin Contracts
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · Low
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
OpenZeppelin Contracts is a library for secure smart contract development. The functions `ECDSA.recover` and `ECDSA.tryRecover` are vulnerable to a kind of signature malleability due to accepting EIP-2098 compact signatures in addition to the traditional 65 byte signature format. This is only an issue for the functions that take a single `bytes` argument, and not the functions that take `r, v, s` or `r, vs` as separate arguments. The potentially affected contracts are those that implement signature reuse or replay protection by marking the signature itself as used rather than the signed message or a nonce included in it. A user may take a signature that has already been submitted, submit it again in a different form, and bypass this protection. The issue has been patched in 4.7.3.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenZeppelin | openzeppelin-contracts | 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 | 4.7.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | @openzeppelin/contracts (npm) | 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 | 4.7.3 | Patch available | GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h |
| — | @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable (npm) | 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 | 4.7.3 | Patch available | GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h |
- openzeppelin-contracts VendorOpenZeppelin Affected 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 Fixed in 4.7.3 Patch available CNA
- @openzeppelin/contracts (npm) Vendor— Affected 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 Fixed in 4.7.3 Patch available GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h
- @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable (npm) Vendor— Affected 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 Fixed in 4.7.3 Patch available GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h
CPE configurations NVD · 2
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* | 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 | Vulnerable | OpenZeppelin |
| cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts_upgradeable:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* | 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 | Vulnerable | OpenZeppelin |
- cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* Versions 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 Vulnerable ·OpenZeppelin
- cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts_upgradeable:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* Versions 4.1.0 to before 4.7.3 Vulnerable ·OpenZeppelin
Remediation
- Fix · CNA openzeppelin-contracts (OpenZeppelin) Fixed in 4.7.3
- Fix · GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h @openzeppelin/contracts (npm) Fixed in 4.7.3 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable (npm) Fixed in 4.7.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2022-35961
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h
References
Advisory 3
More OpenZeppelin Contracts vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-13196 OpenZeppelin Contracts for Cairo account cannot process transactions on Goerli CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2021-16554 TimelockController vulnerability in OpenZeppelin Contracts CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2021-16553 TimelockController vulnerability in OpenZeppelin Contracts CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2021-18096 UUPSUpgradeable vulnerability in OpenZeppelin Contracts CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-13238 GovernorVotesQuorumFraction updates to quorum may affect past defeated proposals in @openzeppelin/contracts CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2022-13212 OpenZeppelin Contracts's ERC165Checker may revert instead of returning false CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2022-35961 · CVE Program
- CVE-2022-35961 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-4h98-2769-gh6h · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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