GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 is a low-severity (CVSS 2.5) CWE-1188 vulnerability in vodozemac. A fix is available for vodozemac — see the affected versions and patch details below.
vodozemac has degraded secret zeroization capabilities
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 GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6.
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
GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 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 377,166 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
vodozemacReal-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
Versions 0.5.0 and 0.5.1 of vodozemac have degraded secret zeroization capabilities, due to changes in third-party cryptographic dependencies (the Dalek crates), which moved secret zeroization capabilities behind a feature flag while vodozemac disabled the default feature set.
Impact
The degraded zeroization capabilities could result in the production of more memory copies of encryption secrets and secrets could linger in memory longer than necessary. This marginally increases the risk of sensitive data exposure.
Overall, we consider the impact of this issue to be low. Although cryptographic best practices recommend the clearing of sensitive information from memory once it's no longer needed, the inherent limitations of Rust regarding absolute zeroization reduce the practical severity of this lapse.
Patches
The patch is in commit https://github.com/matrix-org/vodozemac/pull/130/commits/297548cad4016ce448c4b5007c54db7ee39489d9.
Workarounds
None.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory please email us at security at matrix.org.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | vodozemac | ≥ 0.5.0&&< 0.6.0 | 0.6.0cargo update -p vodozemac --precise 0.6.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for vodozemac, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update vodozemac to 0.6.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 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 GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-c3hm-hxwf-g5c6 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.