CVE-2023-34451
8.2 · HIGHOverview
CVE-2023-34451 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting cometbft cometbft. It was published on July 3, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.2 (HIGH).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.2, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
CometBFT is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) middleware that takes a state transition machine and replicates it on many machines. The mempool maintains two data structures to keep track of outstanding transactions: a list and a map.
These two data structures are supposed to be in sync all the time in the sense that the map tracks the index (if any) of the transaction in the list. In `v0.37.0`, and `v0.37.1`, as well as in `v0.34.28`, and all previous releases of the CometBFT repo2, it is possible to have them out of sync. When this happens, the list may contain several copies of the same transaction. Because the map tracks a single index, it is then no longer possible to remove all the copies of the transaction from the list. This happens even if the duplicated transaction is later committed in a block. The only way to remove the transaction is by restarting the node.
The above problem can be repeated on and on until a sizable number of transactions are stuck in the mempool, in order
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from cometbft. Update cometbft to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| cometbft | cometbft | >= 0.34.28, < 0.34.29 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2023-34451?
CVE-2023-34451 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting cometbft cometbft. It was published on July 3, 2023 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.2 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2023-34451?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.2, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2023-34451?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from cometbft. Update cometbft to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2023-34451?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2023-34451 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
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