CVE-2024-21629

Erroneous handling of `record_external_operation` error return

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: January 2, 2024 at 09:26 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 07:09 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsEvmProject Evm

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Rust EVM is an Ethereum Virtual Machine interpreter. In `rust-evm`, a feature called `record_external_operation` was introduced, allowing library users to record custom gas changes. This feature can have some bogus interactions with the call stack. In particular, during finalization of a `CREATE` or `CREATE2`, in the case that the substack execution happens successfully, `rust-evm` will first commit the substate, and then call `record_external_operation(Write(out_code.len()))`. If `record_external_operation` later fails, this error is returned to the parent call stack, instead of `Succeeded`. Yet, the substate commitment already happened. This causes smart contracts able to commit state changes, when the parent caller contract receives zero address (which usually indicates that the execution has failed). This issue only impacts library users with custom `record_external_operation` that returns errors. The issue is patched in release 0.41.1. No known workarounds are available.

Affected

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

v < 0.41.1
Affected range stops below 0.41.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.41.1
Affected range stops below 0.41.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

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
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-703NVD-CWE-noinfo

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