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Tendermint Light Client VerifierApplication · Tendermint Light Client Verifier Project

CVE-2022-23507

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.28.0 or later.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Tendermint is a high-performance blockchain consensus engine for Byzantine fault tolerant applications. Versions prior to 0.28.0 contain a potential attack via Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature, affecting anyone using the tendermint-light-client and related packages to perform light client verification (e.g. IBC-rs, Hermes). The light client does not check that the chain IDs of the trusted and untrusted headers match, resulting in a possible attack vector where someone who finds a header from an untrusted chain that satisfies all other verification conditions (e.g. enough overlapping validator signatures) could fool a light client. The attack vector is currently theoretical, and no proof-of-concept exists yet to exploit it on live networks. This issue is patched in version 0.28.0. There are no workarounds.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The Tendermint light client fails to validate that chain IDs match between trusted and untrusted headers during verification. An attacker could potentially supply a valid header from one blockchain to fool a light client expecting headers from a different chain, exploiting the missing chain ID comparison in the verification logic.

MitigationUpgrade to Tendermint version 0.28.0 or later, which includes the chain ID validation fix. No workarounds are available.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Tendermint Light Client VerifierApplication
Affected:< 0.28.0
Tendermint Light Client JsApplication
Affected:< 0.28.0
Tendermint Light ClientApplication
Affected:< 0.28.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Tendermint light client packages
    Inspect your project dependencies or module list. For JavaScript projects, review package.json. For Go projects, review go.mod. Look for packages named 'tendermint-light-client-verifier', 'tendermint-light-client-js', 'tendermint-light-client', or related packages.
    Affected if Any of these packages are present with version lower than 0.28.0
  2. Determine installed package version
    Run the appropriate package manager command to list installed versions. For npm: 'npm list <package-name>'. For Go: 'go list -m all' or check vendor directory.
    Affected if The installed version is 0.27.x or lower, or any version below 0.28.0
  3. Check if light client verification is in use
    Search your codebase for calls to verification functions such as 'VerifyLightBlock', 'VerifyChain', or header verification methods provided by the Tendermint light client library.
    Affected if Code invokes light client verification functions and the installed version is below 0.28.0
  4. Inspect verification configuration
    Review configuration files or initialization code where the light client is configured. Look for chain ID settings and how they are handled during header verification.
    Affected if The light client is configured to verify headers and the version is vulnerable

You are affected if you have any Tendermint light client package installed with a version below 0.28.0 and your application performs header verification.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.28.0 or later
Fixed in 0.28.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Tendermint version 0.28.0 or later, which includes the chain ID validation fix. No workarounds are available.

Recommended fix High confidence

0.28.0

  1. Update Tendermint Light Client Verifier dependency to version 0.28.0 or later
  2. Update Tendermint Light Client Js dependency to version 0.28.0 or later
  3. Update Tendermint Light Client dependency to version 0.28.0 or later
  4. Rebuild and redeploy any applications using these packages (e.g., IBC-rs, Hermes)

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Tendermint Light Client Verifier Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,120
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,192.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-23507 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data