How severe is GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v?

No CVSS score has been assigned to GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v?

GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v affects the following packages: secp256k1 (crates.io), secp256k1 (crates.io), secp256k1 (crates.io). Ecosystems affected: crates.io.

How do I fix GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v?

Update secp256k1 to 0.22.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v in my crates.io dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for secp256k1. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

When was GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v was published on December 8, 2022 and was last updated on November 8, 2023. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🦀 crates.io

GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v

Unsound API in `secp256k1` allows use-after-free and invalid deallocation from safe code

Also known asRUSTSEC-2022-0070

Published

Dec 8, 2022

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

3 pkgs

Patched

3 / 3

Exploits

None indexed

Blast Radius

3 pkgs affected

🦀secp256k1🦀secp256k1🦀secp256k1

Real-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

Because of incorrect bounds on method Secp256k1::preallocated_gen_new it was possible to cause use-after-free from safe consumer code. It was also possible to "free" memory not allocated by the appropriate allocator.

The method takes a place for storing the context as a mutable reference and returns context containing that reference. Because the code internally uses unsafe and the bounds were incorrect it was possible to create a context that outlived the passed reference (e.g. 'static). Because the context can alternatively carry heap-allocated pointer freed on drop it was possible to "deallocate" a pointer that wasn't returned from appropriate allocator. The code decides whether to free the memory based on type parameter but because of missing bound it was possible to construct the context with invalid parameter.

You are unaffected if you either

don't call Secp256k1::preallocated_gen_new
manually checked that your usage of the method is sound
upgraded to the patched version of secp256k1 (recommended)

The patched version uses correct bounds which means it is API-breaking. This effectively means adopting the policy of Rust lang itself allowing API-breaking changes to fix soundness bugs. Note however that valid straigthforward usage of the code will continue to compile. Only unsound code or code that propagates the bound in custom generics will fail to compile. If the code is sound fixing the bounds should be sufficient to make the code compile.

See the GitHub issue for example "exploit" code and further discussion.

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🦀crates.io	`secp256k1`	≥ 0.14.0&&< 0.22.2	0.22.2
🦀crates.io	`secp256k1`	≥ 0.23.0&&< 0.23.5	0.23.5
🦀crates.io	`secp256k1`	≥ 0.24.0&&< 0.24.2	0.24.2

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for secp256k1. 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 secp256k1 to 0.22.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v 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 GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v 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 GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Because of incorrect bounds on method `Secp256k1::preallocated_gen_new` it was possible to cause use-after-free from safe consumer code. It was also possible to "free" memory not allocated by the appropriate allocator. The method takes a place for storing the context as a mutable reference and returns context containing that reference. Because the code internally uses `unsafe` and the bounds were incorrect it was possible to create a context that outlived the passed reference (e.g. `'static`). Because the context can alternatively carry heap-allocated pointer freed on drop it was possible to

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-969w-q74q-9j8v 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.

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