Last updated 25 August 2025

A heap-buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in cryptopp. This vulnerability can be used to remotely gain access to shell.

References:

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2016/q4/760 https://pony7.fr/ctf:public:32c3:cryptmsg

Upstream bug:

https://github.com/dlitz/pycrypto/issues/176

The Crypto.Random.atfork function in PyCrypto before 2.6.1 does not properly reseed the pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) before allowing a child process to access it, which makes it easier for context-dependent attackers to obtain sensitive information by leveraging a race condition in which a child process is created and accesses the PRNG within the same rate-limit period as another process.

PyCrypto before 2.6 does not produce appropriate prime numbers when using an ElGamal scheme to generate a key, which reduces the signature space or public key space and makes it easier for attackers to conduct brute force attacks to obtain the private key.