CVE-2026-40092: nimiq-keys: Unchecked Ed25519 signature length in TaggedPublicKey::verify causes remote node panic via DHT
(updated )
A malicious network peer can crash any Nimiq full node by publishing a crafted Kademlia DHT record containing a TaggedSigned<ValidatorRecord, KeyPair> with a signature field whose byte length is not exactly 64. When the victim node’s DHT verifier calls TaggedSigned::verify, execution reaches Ed25519Signature::from_bytes(sig).unwrap() in the TaggedPublicKey implementation for Ed25519PublicKey. The from_bytes call fails because ed25519_zebra::Signature::try_from rejects slices not 64 bytes, and the unwrap() panics. The BLS TaggedPublicKey implementation correctly returns false on error; only the Ed25519 implementation panics.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-27w2-87xv-37c6
- github.com/nimiq/core-rs-albatross/commit/807ee8e99a7ccdc604d49971f292854bfa36754d
- github.com/nimiq/core-rs-albatross/pull/3708
- github.com/nimiq/core-rs-albatross/releases/tag/v1.4.0
- github.com/nimiq/core-rs-albatross/security/advisories/GHSA-27w2-87xv-37c6
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-40092
Code Behaviors & Features
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