CVE-2024-21629 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-703 vulnerability in evm. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2024-21629 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Erroneous handling of `record_external_operation` error return
Real-World Exposure
evmReal-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
Rust EVM is an Ethereum Virtual Machine interpreter. In rust-evm, a feature called record_external_operation was introduced, allowing library users to record custom gas changes. This feature can have some bogus interactions with the call stack. In particular, during finalization of a CREATE or CREATE2, in the case that the substack execution happens successfully, rust-evm will first commit the substate, and then call record_external_operation(Write(out_code.len())). If record_external_operation later fails, this error is returned to the parent call stack, instead of Succeeded. Yet, the substate commitment already happened. This causes smart contracts able to commit state changes, when the parent caller contract receives zero address (which usually indicates that the execution has failed). This issue only impacts library users with custom record_external_operation that returns errors. The issue is patched in release 0.41.1. No known workarounds are available.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | evm | all versions | 0.41.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for evm. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update evm to 0.41.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-21629 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-21629 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2024-21629. 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-2024-21629 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2024-21629 across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.