Plaintext disclosure via AES-CTR keystream reuse
Published Jun 29, 2025 · Updated Jun 30, 2025
Cryptographic key reuse in Ethereum Foundation RLPx 5 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to decrypt private-network traffic. The framing layer initializes both directional AES-CTR streams with the same secret, nonce, and IV, so known plaintext reveals the reused keystream for opposite-direction ciphertext. Exploitation requires a private-network position and known plaintext; the documented consequence is message confidentiality loss, not modification or service interruption.
Summary
What happened
Cryptographic key reuse in Ethereum Foundation RLPx 5 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to decrypt private-network traffic. The framing layer initializes both directional AES-CTR streams with the same secret, nonce, and IV, so known plaintext reveals the reused keystream for opposite-direction ciphertext. Exploitation requires a private-network position and known plaintext; the documented consequence is message confidentiality loss, not modification or service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2015-20112
- Published
- Jun 29, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Ethereum Foundation
- Product
- RLPx
- Classifications
- CWE-325, T1040
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 29, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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