CVE-2023-44378 | gnark vulnerable to unsoundness in variable comparison/non-unique binary decomposition

gnark is a zk-SNARK library that offers a high-level API to design circuits. Prior to version 0.9.0, for some in-circuit values, it is possible to construct two valid decomposition to bits. In addition to the canonical decomposition of `a`, for small values there exists a second decomposition for `a+r` (where `r` is the modulus the values are being reduced by). The second decomposition was possible due to overflowing the field where the values are defined. Upgrading to version 0.9.0 should fix the issue without needing to change the calls to value comparison methods.

Published: 2023-10-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-44378 is rated Low Risk (31.8/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-44378

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 2025-11-21 0.10% 0.03% -0.06%
2 2025-11-18 0.03% 0.10% +0.06%
3 2025-04-15 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-44378

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.5 4.0 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-44378

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-44378

GHSA-498w-5j49-vqjg · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — gnark unsoundness in variable comparison / non-unique binary decomposition

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-44378

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
consensys gnark < 0.9.0 cpe:2.3:a:consensys:gnark:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-44378

cvelogic Threat Intelligence