CVE-2021-41138
In the newly introduced signed Frontier-specific extrinsic for `pallet-ethereum`, a large part of transaction validation logic was only called in transaction pool validation, but not in block execution.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (1.38%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. In the newly introduced signed Frontier-specific extrinsic for `pallet-ethereum`, a large part of transaction validation logic was only called in transaction pool validation, but not in block execution. Malicious validators can take advantage of this to put invalid transactions into a block. The attack is limited in that the signature is always validated, and the majority of the validation is done again in the subsequent `pallet-evm` execution logic. However, do note that a chain ID replay attack was possible. In addition, spamming attacks are of main concerns, while they are limited by Substrate block size limits and other factors. The issue is patched in commit `146bb48849e5393004be5c88beefe76fdf009aba`.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- EPSS
- 1.38% probability · 71th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-20
- Affected
- parity/frontier
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/146bb48849e5393004be5c88beefe76fdf009abaPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/497Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-vj62-g63v-f8mfPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/commit/146bb48849e5393004be5c88beefe76fdf009abaPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/pull/497Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/paritytech/frontier/security/advisories/GHSA-vj62-g63v-f8mfPatch, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.