CVE-2024-33851 — paragonie/ecc
MEDIUMCVE-2024-33851 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) vulnerability in paragonie/ecc. A fix is available for paragonie/ecc — see the affected versions and patch details below.
mdanter/ecc affected by timing vulnerability in cryptographic side-channels
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-33851.
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-2024-33851 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 377,636 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
paragonie/ecc🐘mdanter/eccReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
phpecc, as used in all versions of mdanter/ecc, as well as paragonie/ecc before 2.0.1, has a branch-based timing leak in Point addition. (This Composer package is also known as phpecc/phpecc on GitHub, previously known as the Matyas Danter ECC library.)
Paragon Initiative Enterprises hard-forked phpecc/phpecc and discovered the issue in the original code, then released v2.0.1 which fixes the vulnerability. The upstream code is no longer maintained and remains vulnerable for all versions.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | paragonie/ecc | all versions | 2.0.1composer require paragonie/ecc:^2.0.1 |
| 🐘Packagist | mdanter/ecc | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for paragonie/ecc, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update paragonie/ecc to 2.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-33851 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-2024-33851 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-33851. 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-2024-33851 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-33851 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.