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RUSTSEC-2026-0229

NIP-98 authorization parsing permits resource exhaustion

High crates.io
Severity
7.5 / 10
High · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
—
No score published
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
—
Not classified
Fix
0.44.7
Upgrade nostr to this version or later

Description

The NIP-98 HTTP authorization parser Base64-decoded the complete authorization value and parsed the resulting JSON event without applying an application-level size limit. Both operations occurred before the event's signature and authorization fields could be validated.

An unauthenticated remote client could send an oversized Authorization: Nostr header to a server using this parser. Each request caused memory allocation and decoding and JSON parsing work proportional to the supplied value, allowing repeated requests to consume server memory and CPU. The impact depends on any lower HTTP header limit already enforced by the hosting server. The issue does not bypass NIP-98 authentication or disclose protected data.

The parser now rejects oversized encoded input before Base64 allocation and rejects decoded authorization events larger than 64 KiB before JSON parsing.

Affected versions

crates.io

PackageVulnerableFixed in
nostr
>= 0.0.0-0, < 0.44.7
0.44.7

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

nostr crates.io → 0.44.7

cargo
cargo update -p nostr --precise 0.44.7

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 7.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
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RUSTSEC-2026-0216
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