ubuntu-cve-2020-28498
Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu
Published
2021-02-02 19:15
Modified
2026-05-20 14:52
Summary
Details

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.

Severity
6.8 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
N/A (UNKNOWN)
medium
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.4.0+dfsg-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:18.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.4.0+dfsg-1?arch=source\u0026distro=bionic"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.4.0+dfsg-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.5.1~dfsg-2"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:20.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.5.1~dfsg-2?arch=source\u0026distro=focal"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.5.1~dfsg-1",
        "6.5.1~dfsg-2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.5.4~dfsg-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:22.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.5.4~dfsg-1?arch=source\u0026distro=jammy"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.5.4~dfsg-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.5.4~dfsg-2"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:24.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.5.4~dfsg-2?arch=source\u0026distro=noble"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.5.4~dfsg-2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.6.1+dfsg-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:25.10",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.6.1+dfsg-1?arch=source\u0026distro=questing"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.6.1+dfsg-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "node-elliptic",
            "binary_version": "6.6.1+dfsg+~6.4.18-1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "node-elliptic",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/node-elliptic@6.6.1+dfsg+~6.4.18-1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "6.6.1+dfsg-1",
        "6.6.1+dfsg+~6.4.18-1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "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.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28498",
  "modified": "2026-05-20T14:52:35Z",
  "published": "2021-02-02T19:15:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-28498"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/christianlundkvist/blog/blob/master/2020_05_26_secp256k1_twist_attacks/secp256k1_twist_attacks.md"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://github.com/indutny/elliptic/commit/441b7428b0e8f6636c42118ad2aaa186d3c34c3f"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JAVA-ORGWEBJARSNPM-1069836"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-ELLIPTIC-1064899"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-28498"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2020-28498"
  ]
}



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