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TI-2023-24151 Aliases CVE-2023-45130

Frontier opcode SUICIDE touches too many storage values on large contracts

Priority MEDIUM 41CWE-770Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
No fix listed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-770.

Summary

Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. Prior to commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0, at the end of a contract execution, when opcode SUICIDE marks a contract to be deleted, the software uses `storage::remove_prefix` (now renamed to `storage::clear_prefix`) to remove all storages associated with it. This is a single IO primitive call passing the WebAssembly boundary. For large contracts, the call (without providing a `limit` parameter) can be slow. In addition, for parachains, all storages to be deleted will be part of the PoV, which easily exceed relay chain PoV size limit. On the other hand, Frontier's maintainers only charge a fixed cost for opcode SUICIDE. The maintainers consider the severity of this issue high, because an attacker can craft a contract with a lot of storage values on a parachain, and then call opcode SUICIDE on the contract. If the transaction makes into a parachain block, the parachain will then stall because the PoV size will exceed relay chain's limit. This is especially an issue for XCM transactions, because they can't be skipped. Commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0 contains a patch for this issue. For parachains, it's recommended to issue an emergency runtime upgrade as soon as possible. For standalone chains, the impact is less severe because the issue mainly affects PoV sizes. It's recommended to issue a normal runtime upgrade as soon as possible. There are no known workarounds.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00952 61st percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix No fix listed No fixed version in the sources yet

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
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

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
paritytechfrontierup to 0.1.0—No fix listedCNA
  • frontier Vendorparitytech Affected up to 0.1.0 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:parity:frontier:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*up to 0.1.0Vulnerableparitytech
  • cpe:2.3:a:parity:frontier:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:* Versions up to 0.1.0 Vulnerable ·paritytech

Remediation

No fixed version listed by the sources yet.

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-45130

References

  • TI-2023-12975 Frontier's modexp precompile is slow for even modulus CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
  • TI-2022-16433 Message length overflow in frontier CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
  • TI-2022-13155 Discrepency in transfer value and actual value due to incorrect truncation in Frontier CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
  • TI-2022-06061 Integer underflow in Frontier CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
  • TI-2022-18619 Incorrect Calculation in Frontier leads to inflated Ethereum chain gas prices CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
  • TI-2021-17977 Validity check for signed Frontier-specific extrinsic not called in block execution CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
See all 7 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences