GHSA-pf4j-pf3w-95f9
MEDIUMGHSA-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.8) vulnerability in nimiq-transaction. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
nimiq-transaction: UpdateValidator transactions allows voting key change without proof-of-knowledge
Blast Radius
nimiq-transactionReal-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
Impact
The staking contract accepts UpdateValidator transactions that set new_voting_key=Some(...) while omitting new_proof_of_knowledge. this skips the proof-of-knowledge requirement that is needed to prevent BLS rogue-key attacks when public keys are aggregated.
Because tendermint macro block justification verification aggregates validator voting keys and verifies a single aggregated BLS signature against that aggregate public key, a rogue-key voting key in the validator set can allow an attacker to forge a quorum-looking justification while only producing a single signature.
While the impact is critical, the exploitability is low: The voting keys are fixed for the epoch, so the attacker would need to know the next epoch validator set (chosen through VRF), which is unlikely.
Patches
The patch for this vulnerability is included as part of v1.3.0.
Workarounds
No known workarounds.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | nimiq-transaction | 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 nimiq-transaction. 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.
Remediation status
No patched version of nimiq-transaction has shipped for GHSA-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 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-pf4j-pf3w-95f9. 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-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-pf4j-pf3w-95f9 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.