CVE-2022-23507

Light client verification not taking into account chain ID

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 15, 2022 at 12:01 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:30 AM UTC
4 products affected across 4 vendorsTendermint Light ClientTendermint Light Client VerifierTendermint Light Client Js

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Tendermint is a high-performance blockchain consensus engine for Byzantine fault tolerant applications. Versions prior to 0.28.0 contain a potential attack via Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature, affecting anyone using the tendermint-light-client and related packages to perform light client verification (e.g. IBC-rs, Hermes). The light client does not check that the chain IDs of the trusted and untrusted headers match, resulting in a possible attack vector where someone who finds a header from an untrusted chain that satisfies all other verification conditions (e.g. enough overlapping validator signatures) could fool a light client. The attack vector is currently theoretical, and no proof-of-concept exists yet to exploit it on live networks. This issue is patched in version 0.28.0. There are no workarounds.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 0.28.0
Affected range stops below 0.28.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.28.0
Affected range stops below 0.28.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.28.0
Affected range stops below 0.28.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
LOW
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-347

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