CVE-2023-46135 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-248 vulnerability in stellar-strkey. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for stellar-strkey — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Panic in SignedPayload::from_payload
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-46135.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-46135 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
stellar-strkeyReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Panic vulnerability when a specially crafted payload is used. This is because of the following calculation:
inner_payload_len + (4 - inner_payload_len % 4) % 4
If inner_payload_len is 0xffffffff, (4 - inner_payload_len % 4) % 4 = 1 so
inner_payload_len + (4 - inner_payload_len % 4) % 4 = u32::MAX + 1
which overflow.
Patches
Check that inner_payload_len is not above 64 which should never be the case.
Patched in version 0.0.8
Workarounds
Sanitize input payload before it is passed to the vulnerable function so that bytes in payload[32..32+4] and parsed as a u32 is not above 64.
References
GitHub issue #58
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | stellar-strkey | all versions | 0.0.8cargo update -p stellar-strkey --precise 0.0.8 |
Research 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 stellar-strkey, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update stellar-strkey to 0.0.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-46135 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-46135 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-46135. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-46135 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-46135 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.