CVE-2026-22698Network attack vector

Plaintext recovery via 32-bit ephemeral nonces

Published Jan 10, 2026 · Updated Jan 10, 2026

Insufficient entropy in RustCrypto elliptic-curves 0.14.0-pre.0 and 0.14.0-rc.0 allows attackers to decrypt ciphertexts via biased nonces. The SM2-PKE encrypt path passes a byte count to RandomBits::try_random_bits as a bit count, producing a 32-bit ephemeral nonce with mostly zero bits. Possession of a public key and ciphertext is sufficient for practical nonce and full plaintext recovery; every ciphertext created by the affected API remains exposed.

CVSS severity8.7
High
EPSS probability0.27%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Insufficient entropy in RustCrypto elliptic-curves 0.14.0-pre.0 and 0.14.0-rc.0 allows attackers to decrypt ciphertexts via biased nonces. The SM2-PKE encrypt path passes a byte count to RandomBits::try_random_bits as a bit count, producing a 32-bit ephemeral nonce with mostly zero bits. Possession of a public key and ciphertext is sufficient for practical nonce and full plaintext recovery; every ciphertext created by the affected API remains exposed.

The record

CVE
CVE-2026-22698
Published
Jan 10, 2026
Updated
Jan 10, 2026
Vendor
RustCrypto
Product
elliptic-curves
Classifications
CWE-331, CAPEC-59
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jan 10, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Jan 10, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion== 0.14.0-pre.0
  2. Affected versionversion== 0.14.0-rc.0

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

RustCrypto · elliptic-curvesversion== 0.14.0-pre.0; version== 0.14.0-rc.0

Published CVSS scores

7.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
8.7GitHub, Inc.CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-331Insufficient Entropy
CAPEC-59Session Credential Falsification through Prediction

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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