CVE-2025-14505

Elliptic Cryptanalysis vulnerability when `k` has leading zeros

Published Jan 8, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 5.6 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
The ECDSA implementation of the Elliptic package generates incorrect signatures if an interim value of 'k' (as computed based on step 3.2 of RFC 6979 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6979 ) has leading zeros and is susceptible to cryptanalysis, which can lead to secret key exposure. This happens, because the byte-length of 'k' is incorrectly computed, resulting in its getting truncated during the computation. Legitimate transactions or communications will be broken as a result. Furthermore, due to the nature of the fault, attackers could–under certain conditions–derive the secret key, if they could get their hands on both a faulty signature generated by a vulnerable version of Elliptic and a correct signature for the same inputs.

This issue affects all known versions of Elliptic (at the time of writing, versions less than or equal to 6.6.1).

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-848j-6mx2-7j84 Elliptic Uses a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Elliptic Project
Elliptic Project elliptic
Vendors & Products Elliptic Project
Elliptic Project elliptic
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The ECDSA implementation of the Elliptic package generates incorrect signatures if an interim value of 'k' (as computed based on step 3.2 of RFC 6979 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6979 ) has leading zeros and is susceptible to cryptanalysis, which can lead to secret key exposure. This happens, because the byte-length of 'k' is incorrectly computed, resulting in its getting truncated during the computation. Legitimate transactions or communications will be broken as a result. Furthermore, due to the nature of the fault, attackers could–under certain conditions–derive the secret key, if they could get their hands on both a faulty signature generated by a vulnerable version of Elliptic and a correct signature for the same inputs. This issue affects all known versions of Elliptic (at the time of writing, versions less than or equal to 6.6.1).
Title Elliptic Cryptanalysis vulnerability when `k` has leading zeros
Weaknesses CWE-1240
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.6, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
HeroDevs
Published
Updated
Jan 8, 2026, 9:22 PM
Reserved
Dec 10, 2025, 10:37 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Jan 8, 2026, 9:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 8:36 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Jan 8, 2026, 9:05 PM