CryptoApplication · Golang
CVE-2026-46598
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 · uneditedFor certain crafted inputs, a 'ed25519.PrivateKey' was created by casting malformed wire bytes, leading to a panic when used.
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 · moderate confidenceIn the ed25519 implementation, the PrivateKey type can be initialized by casting raw wire bytes without proper validation. When malformed bytes are cast to create an ed25519.PrivateKey, the resulting key object appears valid but will panic when cryptographic operations are attempted, causing denial of service.
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
CryptoApplication
< 0.52.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check golang.org/x/crypto versionRun 'go list -m golang.org/x/crypto' or check go.mod for 'golang.org/x/crypto' versionAffected if Version is below 0.52.0 or the module is not explicitly versioned (meaning it may be using an old cached version)
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Identify ed25519.PrivateKey type cast usageSearch codebase for patterns like 'ed25519.PrivateKey(' followed by a byte slice, or direct type conversion such as '*(*ed25519.PrivateKey)(unsafe.Pointer(&bytes))'Affected if Code casts raw byte slices directly to ed25519.PrivateKey without prior validation
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Review external input handling for PrivateKey creationTrace data flow from user-controlled input (HTTP headers, query parameters, network sockets, files) to ed25519.PrivateKey instantiationAffected if External/untrusted input reaches ed25519.PrivateKey creation without validation
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Check for Ed25519 key loading from untrusted sourcesReview code that loads Ed25519 keys from configuration files, TLS certificates, SSH keys, or received over the networkAffected if Keys are loaded from external sources without validating they are properly formatted 32-byte scalars with valid clamping
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Test for panic conditions in ed25519 operationsIf possible, fuzz test or provide deliberately malformed 32-byte sequences as private key input and observe if the application panicsAffected if The application panics when given malformed bytes instead of returning an error
You are affected if your golang.org/x/crypto is below version 0.52.0 AND your code directly casts raw byte slices to ed25519.PrivateKey from untrusted input without validation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor data0.52.0
Implement validation of input bytes before casting to ed25519.PrivateKey, ensuring proper error handling instead of panics for malformed inputs.
Fix this in Crypto
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-46598 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-46598 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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