CometBFT may duplicate transactions in the mempool's data structures
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · Low · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-401.
Summary
CometBFT is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) middleware that takes a state transition machine and replicates it on many machines. The mempool maintains two data structures to keep track of outstanding transactions: a list and a map. These two data structures are supposed to be in sync all the time in the sense that the map tracks the index (if any) of the transaction in the list. In `v0.37.0`, and `v0.37.1`, as well as in `v0.34.28`, and all previous releases of the CometBFT repo2, it is possible to have them out of sync. When this happens, the list may contain several copies of the same transaction. Because the map tracks a single index, it is then no longer possible to remove all the copies of the transaction from the list. This happens even if the duplicated transaction is later committed in a block. The only way to remove the transaction is by restarting the node. The above problem can be repeated on and on until a sizable number of transactions are stuck in the mempool, in order to try to bring down the target node. The problem is fixed in releases `v0.34.29` and `v0.37.2`. Some workarounds are available. Increasing the value of `cache_size` in `config.toml` makes it very difficult to effectively attack a full node. Not exposing the transaction submission RPC's would mitigate the probability of a successful attack, as the attacker would then have to create a modified (byzantine) full node to be able to perform the attack via p2p.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cometbft | cometbft | before 0.34.29; 0.37.0 to before 0.37.2 | 0.34.29, 0.37.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) | before 0.34.29 | 0.34.29 | Patch available | GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm |
| — | github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) | 0.37.0 to before 0.37.2 | 0.37.2 | Patch available | GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm |
- cometbft Vendorcometbft Affected before 0.34.29; 0.37.0 to before 0.37.2 Fixed in 0.34.29, 0.37.2 Patch available CNA
- github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.34.29 Fixed in 0.34.29 Patch available GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm
- github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) Vendor— Affected 0.37.0 to before 0.37.2 Fixed in 0.37.2 Patch available GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm
Remediation
- Fix · CNA cometbft (cometbft) Fixed in 0.34.29, 0.37.2
- Fix · GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) Fixed in 0.34.29 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm github.com/cometbft/cometbft (Go) Fixed in 0.37.2 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-34451
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm
References
More Cometbft vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-17276 CometBFT PeerState JSON serialization deadlock CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
Sources
- CVE-2023-34451 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-34451 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-w24w-wp77-qffm · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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