CVE-2023-46129

highpriority · track · 30OT risk · elevatedEPSS 0.004 · 31 %ileDEEUUS
grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
0.37% (31st) EPSS
CVSS 7.5 · high
Is it mine?
12 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
5 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · osv · cert_bund

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

NATS.io is a high performance open source pub-sub distributed communication technology, built for the cloud, on-premise, IoT, and edge computing. The cryptographic key handling library, nkeys, recently gained support for encryption, not just for signing/authentication. This is used in nats-server 2.10 (Sep 2023) and newer for authentication callouts. In nkeys versions 0.4.0 through 0.4.5, corresponding with NATS server versions 2.10.0 through 2.10.3, the nkeys library's `xkeys` encryption handling logic mistakenly passed an array by value into an internal function, where the function mutated that buffer to populate the encryption key to use. As a result, all encryption was actually to an all-zeros key. This affects encryption only, not signing. FIXME: FILL IN IMPACT ON NATS-SERVER AUTH CALLOUT SECURITY. nkeys Go library 0.4.6, corresponding with NATS Server 2.10.4, has a patch for this issue. No known workarounds are available. For any application handling auth callouts in Go, if using the nkeys library, update the dependency, recompile and deploy that in lockstep.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

7.5
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.9–7.5

v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 3.9 · impact 3.6
v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · ENISA EU
v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · security-advisories@github.comexploitability 3.9 · impact 3.6
v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · OSV
v3.16.9mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:Usecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: partialcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
03

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

CWE-321USCWE-321USCWE-325USCWE-325US
04

affected products (12)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

05

advisories (4)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • WID-SEC-W-2023-3067Red Hat OpenShift: Mehrere SchwachstellenDeutsch2023-12-05csaf · cert_bundDE

    Ein entfernter, anonymer Angreifer kann mehrere Schwachstellen in Red Hat OpenShift ausnutzen, um einen Denial of Service Angriff durchzuführen und um Sicherheitsmechanismen zu umgehen.

  • GHSA-mr45-rx8q-wcm9xkeys seal encryption used fixed key for all encryption2023-10-31ghsa · osvUS

    ## Background NATS.io is a high performance open source pub-sub distributed communication technology, built for the cloud, on-premise, IoT, and edge computing. The cryptographic key handling library, nkeys, recently gained support for encryption, not just for signing/authentication. This is used in nats-server 2.10 (Sep 2023) and newer for authentication callouts. ## Problem Description The nkeys library's "xkeys" encryption handling logic mistakenly passed an array by value into an internal function, where the function mutated that buffer to populate the encryption key to use. As a result, all encryption was actually to an all-zeros key. This affects encryption only, not signing. FIXME: FILL IN IMPACT ON NATS-SERVER AUTH CALLOUT SECURITY. ## Affected versions nkeys Go library: * 0.4.0 up to and including 0.4.5 * Fixed with nats-io/nkeys: 0.4.6 NATS Server: * 2.10.0 up to and including 2.10.3 * Fixed with nats-io/nats-server: 2.10.4 ## Solution Upgrade the nats-server. For any application handling auth callouts in Go, if using the nkeys library, update the dependency, recompile and deploy that in lockstep. ## Credits Problem reported by Quentin Matillat (GitHub @tinou98).

  • BIT-nats-2023-46129xkeys Seal encryption used fixed key for all encryption2024-03-06vendor · osvUS

    NATS.io is a high performance open source pub-sub distributed communication technology, built for the cloud, on-premise, IoT, and edge computing. The cryptographic key handling library, nkeys, recently gained support for encryption, not just for signing/authentication. This is used in nats-server 2.10 (Sep 2023) and newer for authentication callouts. In nkeys versions 0.4.0 through 0.4.5, corresponding with NATS server versions 2.10.0 through 2.10.3, the nkeys library's `xkeys` encryption handling logic mistakenly passed an array by value into an internal function, where the function mutated that buffer to populate the encryption key to use. As a result, all encryption was actually to an all-zeros key. This affects encryption only, not signing. FIXME: FILL IN IMPACT ON NATS-SERVER AUTH CALLOUT SECURITY. nkeys Go library 0.4.6, corresponding with NATS Server 2.10.4, has a patch for this issue. No known workarounds are available. For any application handling auth callouts in Go, if using the nkeys library, update the dependency, recompile and deploy that in lockstep.

  • GO-2023-2163Curve KeyPairs fail to encrypt in github.com/nats-io/nkeys2023-11-02vendor · osvUS

    Curve KeyPairs always use the same (all-zeros) key to encrypt data, and provide no security.

06

also known as (6)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

07

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

cnnvdenisa_euvdosvcert_bundnvdNVDCVE.orgMITRE
published 2023-10-31modified 2026-06-17
08

references (13)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

scry

Attackers weaponise vulnerabilities like this against internet-exposed services. See what is exposed on your perimeter with a free passive scan.

Free scan