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nimiq-keys: Denial of service in Ed25519 multisig delinearization via invalid curve points

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 15, 2026 in nimiq/core-rs-albatross • Updated May 21, 2026

Package

cargo nimiq-keys (Rust)

Affected versions

< 1.4.0

Patched versions

1.4.0

Description

Impact

A denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the Ed25519 multisig delinearization code path. Ed25519PublicKey::delinearize() in keys/src/multisig/mod.rs called .unwrap() on curve point decompression, which panics when a public key is
constructed from 32 bytes that do not represent a valid point on the Ed25519 curve. Ed25519PublicKey construction only validates byte length, not curve membership, so invalid keys can reach the delinearization path and crash the
hosting process.

A secondary panic existed in Commitment::From<[u8; 32]>, which similarly called .unwrap() on a failing curve point decompression.

Who is affected: Browser and desktop wallet users of the web-client WASM library and the nimiq-wallet crate, when initiating a multisig operation with an attacker-supplied public key. An attacker must convince the user to include
a crafted public key in a multisig setup — this is not a remotely triggerable node/validator crash.

Who is NOT affected: Validator nodes, consensus, blockchain, mempool, and networking code. There is no on-chain multisig account type; multisig is a purely client-side construct, and no validator/consensus code calls the multisig delinearization path.

Patches

See PR.

Workarounds

No code-level workaround exists short of the patch. Users of wallet applications can mitigate exposure by only performing multisig operations with public keys received from trusted sources.

Resources

  • Affected code: keys/src/multisig/mod.rs, keys/src/multisig/commitment.rs

References

@jsdanielh jsdanielh published to nimiq/core-rs-albatross May 15, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 21, 2026
Reviewed May 21, 2026
Last updated May 21, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Reachable Assertion

The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-46542

GHSA ID

GHSA-h9cc-w26m-j342

Credits

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