# CVE-2020-28498: Cryptographic Issues

> Attackers can potentially reveal private keys due to missing curve validation in the elliptic library's ECDH implementation.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Feb 2021
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** CLSA-2026-1792163746, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28498, GHSA-r9p9-mrjm-926w, ROOT-APP-NPM-CVE-2020-28498, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28498

## What is CVE-2020-28498?

CVE-2020-28498 is a medium-severity vulnerability in elliptic, published on 2 Feb 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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.

Weakness: CWE-327 (Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-28498?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including elliptic. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `elliptic` | npm | All versions | 6.5.4 |
| `elliptic` | npm | All versions | 6.5.4 |

Products: Indutny Elliptic.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-28498?

Upgrade elliptic to 6.5.4 or later.

## Is CVE-2020-28498 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-28498 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in elliptic

- [CVE-2024-48949](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-48949/): Elliptic's verify function omits uniqueness validation (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2020-13822](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-13822/): Signature Malleabillity in elliptic (high 7.7)
- [CVE-2024-42459](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42459/): Elliptic's EDDSA missing signature length check (medium 5.3)
- [CVE-2024-42460](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42460/): Elliptic's ECDSA missing check for whether leading bit of r and s is zero (medium 5.3)
- [CVE-2024-48948](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-48948/): Valid ECDSA signatures erroneously rejected in Elliptic (medium 4.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-28498 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-28498 is a medium-severity vulnerability in elliptic, published on 2 Feb 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-28498 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- elliptic (npm): affected all versions; fixed in 6.5.4
- elliptic (npm): affected all versions; fixed in 6.5.4

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-28498/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-28498/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-28498
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-28498
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-28498

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-28498/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.