CVE-2023-50981

Exp

ModularSquareRoot in Crypto++ (aka cryptopp) through 8.9.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via crafted DER public-key data associated with squared odd numbers, such as the square of 268995137513890432434389773128616504853.

Published: 2023-12-18 Last update: 2025-05-07 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-50981 is rated High Exploit Risk (63.3/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.76%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-50981

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-50981

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 0.07% 0.76% +0.69%
2 2025-11-21 0.24% 0.07% -0.17%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.24% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-50981

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-50981

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-50981

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-50981 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libcrypto++), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-50981
suse medium CVE-2023-50981 severity moderate: SUSE including 7 source package names (libcryptopp-devel-8.6.0-150400.3.6.1, libcryptopp-devel-8.9.0-2.1, …), 19 product×package rows across 8 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6, … (8 product lines)): Fixed 19. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-50981/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-50981 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libcrypto++), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8, ignored 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-50981

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-50981

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
cryptopp crypto\+\+ <= 8.9.0 cpe:2.3:a:cryptopp:crypto\+\+:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-50981

URL Tags
https://github.com/weidai11/cryptopp/issues/1249 Exploit Issue Tracking
cvelogic Threat Intelligence