CVE-2024-31497

In PuTTY 0.68 through 0.80 before 0.81, biased ECDSA nonce generation allows an attacker to recover a user's NIST P-521 secret key via a quick attack in approximately 60 signatures. This is especially important in a scenario where an adversary is able to read messages signed by PuTTY or Pageant. The required set of signed messages may be publicly readable because they are stored in a public Git service that supports use of SSH for commit signing, and the signatures were made by Pageant through an agent-forwarding mechanism. In other words, an adversary may already have enough signature information to compromise a victim's private key, even if there is no further use of vulnerable PuTTY versions. After a key compromise, an adversary may be able to conduct supply-chain attacks on software maintained in Git. A second, independent scenario is that the adversary is an operator of an SSH server to which the victim authenticates (for remote login or file copy), even though this server is not fully trusted by the victim, and the victim uses the same private key for SSH connections to other services operated by other entities. Here, the rogue server operator (who would otherwise have no way to determine the victim's private key) can derive the victim's private key, and then use it for unauthorized access to those other services. If the other services include Git services, then again it may be possible to conduct supply-chain attacks on software maintained in Git. This also affects, for example, FileZilla before 3.67.0, WinSCP before 6.3.3, TortoiseGit before 2.15.0.1, and TortoiseSVN through 1.14.6.

Published: 2024-04-15 Last update: 2025-11-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2024-31497 is rated Moderate Risk (58.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 23.27%, 96th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +1.30% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2024-31497

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 2026-05-20 21.97% 23.27% +1.30%
2 2026-05-04 19.22% 21.97% +2.75%
3 2026-04-08 19.22%

Full EPSS history (38 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-31497

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
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 3.6 [email protected]
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
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 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-31497

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-31497

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2024-31497: 1 source package rows (putty); 8 state rows across 8 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 8, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2024-31497
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-31497 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (filezilla, putty), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 8, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-31497
gentoo high CVE-2024-31497: 1 GLSA(s) (202407-11), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/putty); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2024-31497
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-31497 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (filezilla, putty), 20 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 9, not-affected 6, ignored 3, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-31497

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-31497

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
putty putty >= 0.68, < 0.81 cpe:2.3:a:putty:putty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
filezilla-project filezilla_client < 3.67.0 cpe:2.3:a:filezilla-project:filezilla_client:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
winscp winscp < 6.3.3 cpe:2.3:a:winscp:winscp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tortoisegit tortoisegit < 2.15.0.1 cpe:2.3:a:tortoisegit:tortoisegit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tigris tortoisesvn < 1.14.6 cpe:2.3:a:tigris:tortoisesvn:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 40 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:40:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-31497

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/04/15/6 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2275183 Issue Tracking
https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1222864 Issue Tracking
https://docs.ccv.brown.edu/oscar/connecting-to-oscar/ssh/ssh-agent-forwarding/key-generation-and-agent-forwarding-with-putty Product
https://filezilla-project.org/versions.php Release Notes
https://git.tartarus.org/?h=c193fe9848f50a88a4089aac647fecc31ae96d27&p=simon/putty.git Mailing List Patch
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6p4c-r453-8743 Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/daedalus/BreakingECDSAwithLLL Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/06/msg00014.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IZS3B37GNGWOOV7QU7B7JFK76U4TOP4V/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MMHILY2K7HQGQRHOC375KRRG2M6625RD/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PUOTQVGC4DISVHQGSPUYGXO6TLDK65LA/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WFDZBV7ZCAZ6AH3VCQ34SSY7L3J7VZXZ/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WMJH7M663BVO3SY6MFAW2FAZWLLXAPRQ/ Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40044665 Issue Tracking
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-31497 Third Party Advisory
https://securityonline.info/cve-2024-31497-critical-putty-vulnerability-exposes-private-keys-immediate-action-required/ Press/Media Coverage
https://tartarus.org/~simon/putty-snapshots/htmldoc/Chapter9.html#pageant-forward Product
https://tortoisegit.org Third Party Advisory
https://twitter.com/CCBalert/status/1780229237569470549 Press/Media Coverage
https://twitter.com/lambdafu/status/1779969509522133272 Press/Media Coverage
https://winscp.net/eng/news.php Third Party Advisory
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/putty-ssh-client-flaw-allows-recovery-of-cryptographic-private-keys/ Press/Media Coverage
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html Release Notes Vendor Advisory
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/vuln-p521-bias.html Vendor Advisory
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/04/15/6 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1c4wmoj/putty_vulnerability_affecting_v068_to_v08/ Press/Media Coverage
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/IZS3B37GNGWOOV7QU7B7JFK76U4TOP4V/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/MMHILY2K7HQGQRHOC375KRRG2M6625RD/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/PUOTQVGC4DISVHQGSPUYGXO6TLDK65LA/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/WMJH7M663BVO3SY6MFAW2FAZWLLXAPRQ/
https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/understanding-a-critical-vulnerability-in-putty-biased-ecdsa-nonce-generation-revealing-nist-p-521-private-keys-cve-2024-31497
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