CVE-2024-53856 — pgp
HIGHCVE-2024-53856 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-130 vulnerability in pgp. A fix is available for pgp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
rPGP Panics on Malformed Untrusted Input
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-2024-53856.
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
pgpReal-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
During a security audit, Radically Open Security discovered several reachable edge cases which allow an attacker to trigger rpgp crashes by providing crafted data.
Impact
When processing malformed input, rpgp can run into Rust panics which halt the program.
This can happen in the following scenarios:
- Parsing OpenPGP messages from binary or armor format
- Decrypting OpenPGP messages via
decrypt_with_password() - Parsing or converting public keys
- Parsing signed cleartext messages from armor format
- Using malformed private keys to sign or encrypt
Given the affected components, we consider most attack vectors to be reachable by remote attackers during typical use cases of the rpgp library. The attack complexity is low since the malformed messages are generic, short, and require no victim-specific knowledge.
The result is a denial-of-service impact via program termination. There is no impact to confidentiality or integrity security properties.
Versions and Patches
All recent versions are affected by at least some of the above mentioned issues.
The vulnerabilities have been fixed with version 0.14.1. We recommend all users to upgrade to this version.
References
The security audit was made possible by the NLnet Foundation NGI Zero Core grant program for rpgp.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | pgp | all versions | 0.14.1cargo update -p pgp --precise 0.14.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pgp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pgp to 0.14.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-53856 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-53856 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.