Application hang via nonterminating Jacobi search
Published Dec 18, 2023 · Updated May 7, 2025
Infinite loop in Crypto++ 8.9.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to hang applications by supplying a crafted DER public key. During compressed elliptic-curve point decoding, ModularSquareRoot increments n until Jacobi(n,p) equals -1, an impossible exit condition when p is an odd square. ECP::DecodePoint reaches the loop while parsing the malicious key, leaving the consuming user or server process stuck and consuming CPU.
Summary
What happened
Infinite loop in Crypto++ 8.9.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to hang applications by supplying a crafted DER public key. During compressed elliptic-curve point decoding, ModularSquareRoot increments n until Jacobi(n,p) equals -1, an impossible exit condition when p is an odd square. ECP::DecodePoint reaches the loop while parsing the malicious key, leaving the consuming user or server process stuck and consuming CPU.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-50981
- Published
- Dec 18, 2023
- Updated
- May 7, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-835, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 18, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 7, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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What is affected?
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Malformed compressed DER public-key constructionproof of concept · unverified
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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