CVE-2021-39193: Pallet ethereum Transaction Validity Oversight Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-hw4v-5x4h-c3xm
Share
CVSS 5.3
CWE-1284 CWE-20
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2021-39193 is a MODERATE (CVSS 5.3) transaction validity oversight vulnerability (CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input) affecting Pallet ethereum libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves transaction validity oversight in pallet-ethereum. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2021-39193 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2021-39193
GHSA Identifier GHSA-hw4v-5x4h-c3xm
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.3
CWE Classification CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input
Affected Product Pallet ethereum
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.3

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity Low (I:L)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2021-39193

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Pallet ethereum dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

pallet-ethereum fixed: Latest secure release 
Upgrade pallet-ethereum to Latest secure release
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for pallet-ethereum

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2021-39193, inspect your project dependencies for Pallet ethereum:

inspect dependencies for pallet-ethereum

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Pallet ethereum in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input, where the product receives input that is expected to specify a quantity (such as size or length), but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the quantity has the required properties. In Pallet ethereum, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Impact A bug in `pallet-ethereum` can cause invalid transactions to be included in the Ethereum block state in `pallet-ethereum` due to not validating the input data size. Any invalid transactions included this way have no possibility to alter the internal Ethereum or Substrate state. The transaction will appear to have be included, but is of no effect as it is rejected by the EVM engine. The impact is further limited by Substrate extrinsic size constraints. ### Patches Patches are applied in PR #465. ### Workarounds None. ### References Patch PR: https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465 ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Open an issue in the [Frontier repo](https://github.com/paritytech/frontier)

CVE-2021-39193 Affected Pallet ethereum Versions

1 component(s)
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
pallet-ethereum
 crates.io
≤ 3.0.0

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-hw4v-5x4h-c3xm
NVD — CVE-2021-39193 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-39193
Pallet ethereum Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465
Pallet ethereum Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465/commits/8a2b890a2fb477d5fedd0e4335b00623832849ae
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/0b962f218f0cdd796dadfe26c3f09e68f7861b26
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/dd112e
Pallet ethereum Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/polkadot-evm/frontier

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2021-39193?
CVE-2021-39193 is a security vulnerability in Pallet ethereum involving Transaction validity oversight in pallet-ethereum under CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input.
Which Pallet ethereum versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches across affected packages: pallet-ethereum.
What version fixes CVE-2021-39193?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is pallet-ethereum affected?
Yes, pallet-ethereum is affected in releases prior to Latest secure release. Upgrade your dependency to Latest secure release or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-39193?
CVE-2021-39193 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2021-39193?
CVE-2021-39193 is classified under CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input (The product receives input that is expected to specify a quantity (such as size or length), but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the quantity has the required properties.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2021-39193?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for pallet-ethereum'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-hw4v-5x4h-c3xm",
  "modified" : "2024-10-24T21:18:31Z",
  "published" : "2021-09-01T18:22:48Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2021-39193" ],
  "summary" : "Transaction validity oversight in pallet-ethereum",
  "details" : "### Impact\n\nA bug in `pallet-ethereum` can cause invalid transactions to be included in the Ethereum block state in `pallet-ethereum` due to not validating the input data size. Any invalid transactions included this way have no possibility to alter the internal Ethereum or Substrate state. The transaction will appear to have be included, but is of no effect as it is rejected by the EVM engine. The impact is further limited by Substrate extrinsic size constraints.\n\n### Patches\n\nPatches are applied in PR #465.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nNone.\n\n### References\n\nPatch PR: https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465\n\n### For more information\n\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory:\n* Open an issue in the [Frontier repo](https://github.com/paritytech/frontier)\n",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "pallet-ethereum"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "3.0.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-hw4v-5x4h-c3xm"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-39193"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/465/commits/8a2b890a2fb477d5fedd0e4335b00623832849ae"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/0b962f218f0cdd796dadfe26c3f09e68f7861b26"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/dd112e"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/polkadot-evm/frontier"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1284", "CWE-20" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2021-09-01T18:16:10Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2021-09-03T18:15:00Z"
  }
}