# CVE-2022-24884: Trivial signature forgery in ecdsautils

> Attackers can forge valid ECDSA signatures using zero values, bypassing authentication or integrity checks in applications using ecdsautils.

- **Severity:** Critical 10.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 May 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-24884, DLA-2997-1, DSA-5132-1, GHSA-qhcg-9ffp-78pw, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-24884, USN-6239-1

## What is CVE-2022-24884?

CVE-2022-24884 is a critical vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 5 May 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ecdsautils is a tiny collection of programs used for ECDSA (keygen, sign, verify). `ecdsa_verify_[prepare_]legacy()` does not check whether the signature values `r` and `s` are non-zero. A signature consisting only of zeroes is always considered valid, making it trivial to forge signatures. Requiring multiple signatures from different public keys does not mitigate the issue: `ecdsa_verify_list_legacy()` will accept an arbitrary number of such forged signatures. Both the `ecdsautil verify` CLI command and the libecdsautil library are affected. The issue has been fixed in ecdsautils 0.4.1. All older versions of ecdsautils (including versions before the split into a library and a CLI utility) are vulnerable.

Weakness: CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-24884?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Ecdsautils Project Ecdsautils, Fedoraproject Fedora.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-24884?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2022-24884 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-24884 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-24884 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-24884 is a critical vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 5 May 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-2022-24884 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

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-2022-24884/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-24884/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-24884
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-24884
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-24884

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-24884/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.