GHSA-WWX5-GPGR-VXR7
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2025-01-28 17:29 – Updated: 2025-01-28 20:15A critical vulnerability was discovered in the ismp-grandpa crate, that allowed a malicious prover easily convince the verifier of the finality of arbitrary headers.
Description
The vulnerability manifests as a verifer that only accepts incorrect signatures of Grandpa precommits and was introduced in this specific commit. Perhaps due to unfamiliarity with core substrate APIs. The if statement should have included a negation check, similar to the previous code, but this was omitted. Causing the verifier to only accept invalid signatures.
This vulnerability remained undetected even with integration tests, as the prover was also misconfigured to initialize the Grandpa verifier with the incorrect authority set_id. This causes verification of honest precommit signatures to fail as the message is now malformed, but the verifier indeed only accepts signatures or messages that fail the verification check.
But even more devastatingly, the verifier will also accept malicious GRANDPA signatures for any precommit message.
This vulnerability has been fixed in this commit and a patch release has been published.
Impact
This could be used to steal funds or compromise other kinds of cross-chain applications.
Patches
This vulnerability has been fixed in the latest version of ismp-granpda v15.0.1
Recommendations
Users who rely on the compromised versions must upgrade immediately, as all vulnerable versions of the crate has been yanked.
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "crates.io",
"name": "ismp-grandpa"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "15.0.1"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
},
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "crates.io",
"name": "grandpa-verifier-primitives"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.1.2"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
},
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "crates.io",
"name": "grandpa-verifier"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.1.2"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
}
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2025-24800"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-347"
],
"github_reviewed": true,
"github_reviewed_at": "2025-01-28T17:29:17Z",
"nvd_published_at": "2025-01-28T16:15:45Z",
"severity": "CRITICAL"
},
"details": "A critical vulnerability was discovered in the `ismp-grandpa` crate, that allowed a malicious prover easily convince the verifier of the finality of arbitrary headers.\n\n### Description\n\nThe vulnerability manifests as a verifer that only accepts incorrect signatures of Grandpa precommits and was introduced in this [specific commit](https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/5ca3351a19151f1a439c30d5cbdbfdc72a11f1a8#diff-3835cc24fb2011b3e8246036059acd8c2c2a9a869eedf7a210d18edb6543318dL262). Perhaps due to unfamiliarity with core substrate APIs. The `if` statement should have included a negation check, similar to the previous code, but this was omitted. Causing the verifier to **only** accept invalid signatures.\n\nThis vulnerability remained undetected even with [integration tests](https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/04d5be207b082eb61d586d52e1685e2e060347e6#diff-4aedbca82d26bebc03f274e23fd5697c3346ffff54405c87af9018f3aef708b2R1-R160), as the prover was also [misconfigured](https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/b26894913b301061b07db61af841ca2586415f08#diff-493a6129d75fe31185e28695a4d2adc1582fe9df12462e380fe994f170fc1e70L159) to initialize the Grandpa verifier with the incorrect authority `set_id`. This causes verification of honest precommit signatures to fail as the message is now malformed, but the verifier indeed only accepts signatures or messages that fail the verification check.\n\nBut even more devastatingly, the verifier will also accept malicious GRANDPA signatures for any precommit message.\n\nThis vulnerability has been fixed in this [commit](https://github.com/polytope-labs/hyperbridge/pull/372/commits/f0e85db718f5165b06585a49b14a66f8ad643aea) and a patch release has been published.\n\n### Impact\nThis could be used to steal funds or compromise other kinds of cross-chain applications.\n\n### Patches\nThis vulnerability has been fixed in the latest version of `ismp-granpda` `v15.0.1`\n\n### Recommendations\nUsers who rely on the compromised versions must upgrade immediately, as all vulnerable versions of the crate has been yanked.\n",
"id": "GHSA-wwx5-gpgr-vxr7",
"modified": "2025-01-28T20:15:50Z",
"published": "2025-01-28T17:29:17Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/hyperbridge/security/advisories/GHSA-wwx5-gpgr-vxr7"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-24800"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/hyperbridge/pull/372/commits/f0e85db718f5165b06585a49b14a66f8ad643aea"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/04d5be207b082eb61d586d52e1685e2e060347e6#diff-4aedbca82d26bebc03f274e23fd5697c3346ffff54405c87af9018f3aef708b2R1-R160"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/5ca3351a19151f1a439c30d5cbdbfdc72a11f1a8#diff-3835cc24fb2011b3e8246036059acd8c2c2a9a869eedf7a210d18edb6543318dL262"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/ismp-substrate/pull/64/commits/b26894913b301061b07db61af841ca2586415f08#diff-493a6129d75fe31185e28695a4d2adc1582fe9df12462e380fe994f170fc1e70L159"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/polytope-labs/hyperbridge"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
"type": "CVSS_V4"
}
],
"summary": "ismp-grandpa crate accepted incorrect signatures"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.