CVE-2020-5303 json
Denial of service in Tendermint
published 2020-04-10 6 y ago modified 2026-07-08 4 mo ago also GHSA-v24h-pjjv-mcp6 , EUVD-2021-1191
- cvss
- 3.1
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 1.4%
- EPSS 1.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 72%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
Tendermint before versions 0.33.3, 0.32.10, and 0.31.12 has a denial-of-service vulnerability. Tendermint does not limit the number of P2P connection requests. For each p2p connection, it allocates XXX bytes. Even though this memory is garbage collected once the connection is terminated (due to duplicate IP or reaching a maximum number of inbound peers), temporary memory spikes can lead to OOM (Out-Of-Memory) exceptions. Additionally, Tendermint does not reclaim activeID of a peer after it's removed in Mempool reactor. This does not happen all the time. It only happens when a connection fails (for any reason) before the Peer is created and added to all reactors. RemovePeer is therefore called before AddPeer, which leads to always growing memory (activeIDs map). The activeIDs map has a maximum size of 65535 and the node will panic if this map reaches the maximum. An attacker can create a lot of connection attempts (exploiting above denial of service), which ultimately will lead to the node panicking. These issues are patched in Tendermint 0.33.3 and 0.32.10.
Patch / fix
- go github.com/tendermint/tendermint 0.31.12, 0.32.10, 0.33.3
- tendermint tendermint 0.31.12, 0.32.10, 0.33.3
Exploit prediction
1.37% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 72% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 3.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVD | 3.1 | 3.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVD | 2.0 | 4.3 | AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P |
| GitHub | 3.1 | 3.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
Affected packages
| ecosystem | package | affected | fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | github.com/tendermint/tendermint | >=0.33.0, <0.33.3 <0.31.12 >=0.32.0, <0.32.10 |
0.33.3 0.31.12 0.32.10 |
Affected products
- Tendermint Tendermint
Classification
References
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint/commit/e2d6859afd7dba4cf97c7f7d412e7d8fc908d1cd
web, patch, third-party-advisory
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint/security/advisories/GHSA-v24h-pjjv-mcp6
web, third-party-advisory
-
hackerone.com
/reports/820317
web, permissions-required, third-party-advisory
-
nvd.nist.gov
/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5303
advisory
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint/issues/1696
web
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint/issues/3338
web
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint
package
-
github.com
/tendermint/tendermint/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#denial-of-service-1
web
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2020-5303
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-v24h-pjjv-mcp6
- NVD CVE-2020-5303
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