Log in Start free

Vulnerability · Published Sep 14, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-54542Nimiq: Out-of-bounds panic in KeyNibbles::Add from oversized child suffix in a deserialized proof

Low 3.7

In plain English

A low-severity out-of-bounds read in core-rs-albatross from nimiq. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 39% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)3.7Low
Exploit odds (30 days)0.4%top 61.3% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Nimiq is a Rust implementation of the Nimiq Proof-of-Stake protocol based on the Albatross consensus algorithm. Prior to 1.6.0, a malicious state-sync peer can crash a syncing node by sending a crafted TrieChunk whose proof contains a TrieNodeChild suffix that is individually valid but exceeds the 63-byte KeyNibbles backing array when combined with the parent key. KeyNibbles::Add in primitives/src/key_nibbles.rs performs the combined slice operation without checking the total length, and the input reaches put_chunk, TrieNodeChild::key, and TrieNodeChild::is_stump before proof.verify, so the attacker does not need a valid cryptographic proof. Exploitation requires the attacker to be selected as the victim's sync peer during state sync. The resulting out-of-bounds panic is transient because the node restarts and resynchronizes. This issue is fixed in version 1.6.0.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
nimiq core-rs-albatross < 1.6.0

Weakness: CWE-125 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

References