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Frontier CVE-2023-45130

HIGH
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770)
2023-10-13 security-advisories@github.com
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource allocation limits
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Impact

CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote attacker could exhaust system resources through uncontrolled allocation by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.9% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAI

Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Allocation of Resources Without Limits vulnerability could allow attackers to exhaust system resources through uncontrolled allocation.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Set resource limits, implement rate limiting, validate input sizes.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Allocation of Resources Without Limits (CWE-770), which allows attackers to exhaust system resources through uncontrolled allocation. Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. Prior to commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0, at the end of a contract execution, when opcode SUICIDE marks a contract to be deleted, the software uses storage::remove_prefix (now renamed to storage::clear_prefix) to remove all storages associated with it. This is a single IO primitive call passing the WebAssembly boundary. For large contracts, the call (without providing a limit parameter) can be slow. In addition, for parachains, all storages to be deleted will be part of the PoV, which easily exceed relay chain PoV size limit. On the other hand, Frontier's maintainers only charge a fixed cost for opcode SUICIDE. The maintainers consider the severity of this issue high, because an attacker can craft a contract with a lot of storage values on a parachain, and then call opcode SUICIDE on the contract. If the transaction makes into a parachain block, the parachain will then stall because the PoV size will exceed relay chain's limit. This is especially an issue for XCM transactions, because they can't be skipped. Commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0 contains a patch for this issue. For parachains, it's recommended to issue an emergency runtime upgrade as soon as possible. For standalone chains, the impact is less severe because the issue mainly affects PoV sizes. It's recommended to issue a normal runtime upgrade as soon as possible. There are no known workarounds. Affected products include: Parity Frontier.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

DescriptionNVD

Frontier is Substrate's Ethereum compatibility layer. Prior to commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0, at the end of a contract execution, when opcode SUICIDE marks a contract to be deleted, the software uses storage::remove_prefix (now renamed to storage::clear_prefix) to remove all storages associated with it. This is a single IO primitive call passing the WebAssembly boundary. For large contracts, the call (without providing a limit parameter) can be slow. In addition, for parachains, all storages to be deleted will be part of the PoV, which easily exceed relay chain PoV size limit. On the other hand, Frontier's maintainers only charge a fixed cost for opcode SUICIDE. The maintainers consider the severity of this issue high, because an attacker can craft a contract with a lot of storage values on a parachain, and then call opcode SUICIDE on the contract. If the transaction makes into a parachain block, the parachain will then stall because the PoV size will exceed relay chain's limit. This is especially an issue for XCM transactions, because they can't be skipped. Commit aea528198b3b226e0d20cce878551fd4c0e3d5d0 contains a patch for this issue. For parachains, it's recommended to issue an emergency runtime upgrade as soon as possible. For standalone chains, the impact is less severe because the issue mainly affects PoV sizes. It's recommended to issue a normal runtime upgrade as soon as possible. There are no known workarounds.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.9%
Top 45% exploitable
Data Quality
3 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.9%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +1
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:parity:frontier:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*

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