CVE-2025-14505: Elliptic Elliptic Uses A Cryptographic Primitive Vulnerability

LOW
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-848j-6mx2-7j84
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CVSS 5.6
CWE-1240
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-14505 is a LOW (CVSS 5.6) elliptic uses a cryptographic primitive vulnerability (CWE-1240: Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation) affecting Elliptic libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves elliptic uses a cryptographic primitive with a risky implementation. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2025-14505 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-14505
GHSA Identifier GHSA-848j-6mx2-7j84
Severity LOW
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.6
CWE Classification CWE-1240: Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation
Affected Product Elliptic
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.6

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

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

How to Fix CVE-2025-14505

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

elliptic fixed: Latest secure release 
npm install elliptic@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: 

npm ls elliptic

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2025-14505, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls elliptic

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Elliptic 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: The npm ls elliptic command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-1240: Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation, where to fulfill the need for a cryptographic primitive, the product implements a cryptographic algorithm using a non-standard, unproven, or disallowed/non-compliant cryptographic implementation. In Elliptic, 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

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).

CVE-2025-14505 Affected Elliptic Versions

1 component(s)
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
elliptic
npm/elliptic
npm
≤ 6.6.1

References

NVD — CVE-2025-14505 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-14505
Elliptic Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/indutny/elliptic/issues/321
Elliptic Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/indutny/elliptic
www.herodevs.com/vulnerability-direc... WEB
https://www.herodevs.com/vulnerability-directory/cve-2025-14505

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-14505?
CVE-2025-14505 is a security vulnerability in Elliptic involving Elliptic Uses a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation under CWE-1240: Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation.
Which Elliptic versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches across affected packages: elliptic.
What version fixes CVE-2025-14505?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is elliptic affected?
Yes, elliptic 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-2025-14505?
CVE-2025-14505 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.6 (LOW) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-14505?
CVE-2025-14505 is classified under CWE-1240: Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation (To fulfill the need for a cryptographic primitive, the product implements a cryptographic algorithm using a non-standard, unproven, or disallowed/non-compliant cryptographic implementation.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2025-14505?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls elliptic'. 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-848j-6mx2-7j84",
  "modified" : "2026-01-09T20:19:43Z",
  "published" : "2026-01-08T21:30:34Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-14505" ],
  "summary" : "Elliptic Uses a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation",
  "details" : "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.\n\nThis issue affects all known versions of Elliptic (at the time of writing, versions less than or equal to 6.6.1).",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "elliptic"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "6.6.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-14505"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/indutny/elliptic/issues/321"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/indutny/elliptic"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://www.herodevs.com/vulnerability-directory/cve-2025-14505"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1240" ],
    "severity" : "LOW",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-01-09T20:19:43Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-01-08T21:15:42Z"
  }
}