CVE-2026-33936

MEDIUM

python-ecdsa: Denial of Service via improper DER length validation in crafted private keys

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2026-33936. PoCs published by 0xmrma.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This repository provides a detailed technical analysis of CVE-2026-33936, a DoS vulnerability in the python-ecdsa library caused by improper validation of DER length fields, leading to an internal IndexError during key parsing.

Description

The `ecdsa` PyPI package is a pure Python implementation of ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) with support for ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm), EdDSA (Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm) and ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman). Prior to version 0.19.2, an issue in the low-level DER parsing functions can cause unexpected exceptions to be raised from the public API functions. `ecdsa.der.remove_octet_string()` accepts truncated DER where the encoded length exceeds the available buffer. For example, an OCTET STRING that declares a length of 4096 bytes but provides only 3 bytes is parsed successfully instead of being rejected. Because of that, a crafted DER input can cause `SigningKey.from_der()` to raise an internal exception (`IndexError: index out of bounds on dimension 1`) rather than cleanly rejecting malformed DER (e.g., raising `UnexpectedDER` or `ValueError`). Applications that parse untrusted DER private keys may crash if they do not handle unexpected exceptions, resulting in a denial of service. Version 0.19.2 patches the issue.

Exploits (1)

nomisec WRITEUP 1 stars
by 0xmrma · poc
https://github.com/0xmrma/CVE-2026-33936

This repository provides a detailed technical analysis of CVE-2026-33936, a DoS vulnerability in the python-ecdsa library caused by improper validation of DER length fields, leading to an internal IndexError during key parsing.

Classification
Writeup 100%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: python-ecdsa (PyPI)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: malformed DER input with truncated length fields
devstral-2 · analyzed Apr 08, 2026 Full analysis →

Scores

CVSS v3 5.3
EPSS 0.0005
EPSS Percentile 14.7%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation poc
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-130 CWE-20
Status published
Products (3)
pypi/ecdsa 0 - 0.19.2PyPI
tlsfuzzer/ecdsa < 0.19.2
tlsfuzzer/python-ecdsa < 0.19.2
Published Mar 27, 2026
Tracked Since Mar 29, 2026