CVE-2012-2417 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-310 vulnerability in pycrypto. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for pycrypto — see the affected versions and patch details below.
PyCrypto makes Use of Insufficiently Random Values
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
pycryptoReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
PyCrypto before 2.6 does not produce appropriate prime numbers when using an ElGamal scheme to generate a key, which reduces the signature space or public key space and makes it easier for attackers to conduct brute force attacks to obtain the private key.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | pycrypto | all versions | 2.6pip install --upgrade 'pycrypto==2.6' |
Affected Products
pycryptodlitzResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pycrypto, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pycrypto to 2.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2012-2417 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-2417 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.