# CVE-2022-23507: Light client verification not taking into account chain ID > Tendermint light client fails to verify chain IDs, allowing attackers to bypass verification with headers from other chains. - **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/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:** 15 Dec 2022 - **Updated:** 18 Apr 2025 - **Also known as:** GHSA-xqqc-c5gw-c5r5 ## What is CVE-2022-23507? CVE-2022-23507 is a medium-severity vulnerability in informalsystems tendermint-rs, published on 15 Dec 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim. ### Official description Tendermint is a high-performance blockchain consensus engine for Byzantine fault tolerant applications. Versions prior to 0.28.0 contain a potential attack via Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature, affecting anyone using the tendermint-light-client and related packages to perform light client verification (e.g. IBC-rs, Hermes). The light client does not check that the chain IDs of the trusted and untrusted headers match, resulting in a possible attack vector where someone who finds a header from an untrusted chain that satisfies all other verification conditions (e.g. enough overlapping validator signatures) could fool a light client. The attack vector is currently theoretical, and no proof-of-concept exists yet to exploit it on live networks. This issue is patched in version 0.28.0. There are no workarounds. Weakness: CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-23507? 6 open source packages ship an affected version, including tendermint-light-client, tendermint-light-client-js and tendermint-light-client-verifier. It affects 3 products. | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `tendermint-light-client` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | | `tendermint-light-client` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | | `tendermint-light-client-js` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | | `tendermint-light-client-js` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | | `tendermint-light-client-verifier` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | | `tendermint-light-client-verifier` | crates.io | All versions | 0.28.0 | Products: Tendermint-Light-Client-Js Project Tendermint-Light-Client-Js, Tendermint-Light-Client-Verifier Project Tendermint-Light-Client-Verifier, Tendermint-Light-Client Project Tendermint-Light-Client. ## How do I fix CVE-2022-23507? Upgrade tendermint-light-client to 0.28.0 or later. ## Is CVE-2022-23507 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23507 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2022-23507 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2022-23507 is a medium-severity vulnerability in informalsystems tendermint-rs, published on 15 Dec 2022. 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-2022-23507 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected packages and fixed versions: - tendermint-light-client (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 - tendermint-light-client (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 - tendermint-light-client-js (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 - tendermint-light-client-js (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 - tendermint-light-client-verifier (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 - tendermint-light-client-verifier (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 0.28.0 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-2022-23507/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23507/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-23507 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-23507 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-23507 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23507/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.