CVE-2020-28498 | Cryptographic Issues

The package elliptic before 6.5.4 are vulnerable to Cryptographic Issues via the secp256k1 implementation in elliptic/ec/key.js. There is no check to confirm that the public key point passed into the derive function actually exists on the secp256k1 curve. This results in the potential for the private key used in this implementation to be revealed after a number of ECDH operations are performed.

Published: 2021-02-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-28498 is rated Moderate Risk (47.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.24%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-28498

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 3.94% 1.24% -2.69%
2 2026-02-13 0.87% 3.94% +3.07%
3 2026-02-08 — 0.87% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-28498

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.2 4.0 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-28498

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-28498

GHSA-r9p9-mrjm-926w · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: npm — Elliptic Uses a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-28498

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-28498 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-elliptic), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-28498
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-28498 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-elliptic), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needs-triage 6, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-28498

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-28498

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
indutny elliptic < 6.5.4 cpe:2.3:a:indutny:elliptic:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2020-28498

cvelogic Threat Intelligence