🛡️ RUSTSEC-2026-0216 — nostr

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Remote Denial of Service via malformed NIP‑44 v2 payload

The NIP-44 v2 decryption path in the nostr crate contains a reachable panic

when processing a short or empty ciphertext. After the HMAC check passes and the

ciphertext is decrypted via ChaCha20, the code reads a 2‑byte unpadded‑length

prefix via buffer[0..2] without first verifying that the decrypted buffer

contains at least 2 bytes. A malicious sender who holds the symmetric

conversation key (e.g., a direct‑message sender) can craft a payload that

produces a 0 or 1‑byte decrypted buffer, causing an index‑out‑of‑bounds panic.

This can be triggered remotely through any relay that delivers the crafted

event to the victim's client, resulting in a denial of service. No key material,

plaintext, or memory corruption occurs.

The vulnerability is present in all versions from 0.26.0 up to 0.44.4

(inclusive) and in the alpha releases 0.45.0‑alpha.1 through 0.45.0‑alpha.4.

Versions 0.44.5 and 0.45.0‑alpha.5 contain the fix.

Credit

Discovered and responsibly disclosed by Muhammed Shekho ([mhd-shekho.com](https://mhd-shekho.com)).

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

RUSTSEC-2026-0216 is recorded against 1 package.

  • nostr

Timeline and source

Published on 25 July 2026 and last revised on 1 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

crates.io (Package)
rustsec.org (Advisory)
github.com (Web)

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2026-07-25
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-08-01
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
nostr — —

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