Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-22700

Rustcrypto Sm2 Elliptic Curve 0.14.0

Public PoC
Published
10 January 2026
Modified
22 January 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0028 21th percentile
Risk Priority 56 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-22700 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Rustcrypto Sm2 Elliptic Curve. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 21th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2026-22700 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in the RustCrypto elliptic-curves library, which provides general-purpose elliptic curve cryptography support including types for scalars, points, and keys. The issue affects versions 0.14.0-pre.0 and 0.14.0-rc.0 specifically in the SM2 public-key encryption implementation, where the decrypt() function performs unchecked slice::split_at operations on input buffers derived from untrusted ciphertext. This can trigger bounds-check panics during Rust unwinding, crashing the calling thread or process. The vulnerability is rated with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and is associated with CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation).

Any network-accessible attacker without privileges can exploit this vulnerability by submitting short or undersized ciphertext, or carefully crafted DER-encoded structures, to a vulnerable application performing SM2 decryption with the affected library. Successful exploitation leads to a crash of the calling thread or process, resulting in denial of service with high availability impact but no confidentiality or integrity effects.

The vulnerability has been patched in commit e60e99167a9a2b187ebe80c994c5204b0fdaf4ab, as detailed in the associated GitHub pull request #1603 and security advisory GHSA-j9xq-69pf-pcm8. Security practitioners should update to a patched version of the elliptic-curves crate beyond the affected pre-release versions to mitigate the issue.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

RustCrypto: Elliptic Curves is general purpose Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) support, including types and traits for representing various elliptic curve forms, scalars, points, and public/secret keys composed thereof. In versions 0.14.0-pre.0 and 0.14.0-rc.0, a denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the SM2…

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public-key encryption (PKE) implementation: the decrypt() path performs unchecked slice::split_at operations on input buffers derived from untrusted ciphertext. An attacker can submit short/undersized ciphertext or carefully-crafted DER-encoded structures to trigger bounds-check panics (Rust unwinding) which crash the calling thread or process. This issue has been patched via commit e60e991.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1036.001 Invalid Code Signature Stealth
Adversaries may attempt to mimic features of valid code signatures to increase the chance of deceiving a user, analyst, or tool.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-22699Same product: Rustcrypto Sm2 Elliptic Curve
CVE-2026-22698Same product: Rustcrypto Sm2 Elliptic Curve
CVE-2024-21549Shared CWE-20
CVE-2024-25046Shared CWE-20
CVE-2024-52337Shared CWE-20
CVE-2026-30523Shared CWE-20
CVE-2024-36053Shared CWE-20
CVE-2025-62455Shared CWE-20
CVE-2025-31233Shared CWE-20
CVE-2025-25210Shared CWE-20

Affected Assets

rustcrypto
sm2 elliptic curve
0.14.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 6 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing input validation through analysis or test cases.

SI-10 directly requires validity checks on information inputs, structurally preventing improper or missing validation.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can embed input-validation practices into the engineering process.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require and enforce input validation during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Testing against a defined set of requirements and using code review plus vulnerability scanning forces validation of inputs and handling of unanticipated conditions, reducing the chance that malformed data will be accepted.

prevents

Secure-coding guidelines and mandatory security testing (including code scans) compel developers to validate and sanitize inputs at design and implementation time, lowering the incidence of malformed or malicious data reaching downstream components.

prevents

Mandating input controls that include integrity checks and input validation ensures that untrusted data is examined before use, blocking the root cause of many injection and malformed-data weaknesses.

prevents

Security-by-design principles explicitly call for data validation and sanitization at every layer, reducing the chance that malformed or malicious input will be processed without scrutiny.

prevents

Requiring language-specific secure coding standards, peer review, SAST and documented mitigation of common programming errors forces validation of all inputs before they are trusted.

none

Regular automated validation of system software and data content, combined with scanning of all inbound files, enforces input validation at the boundary before untrusted content is processed.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-20

References