VulnerabilityPublished 19 Aug 2024Updated 13 Sep 2024

CVE-2024-44073: miniscript · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects miniscriptSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 12.2.0 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 50% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 12.2.0

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 19 Aug 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade rust-bitcoin/miniscript to 12.2.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
crates.iorust-bitcoin/miniscript`pkg:cargo/rust-bitcoin/miniscript`Other threats	Affected <12.2.0	Fixed in 12.2.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-44073, organizations should immediately upgrade rust-miniscript to version 12.2.0 or later, where the stack depth tracking issue has been resolved. For environments where immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement input validation and limit the complexity or depth of scripts processed by the library to prevent excessive stack consumption. Employ runtime monitoring and alerting for abnormal resource usage patterns indicative of stack exhaustion or denial of service attempts. Consider sandboxing or isolating components that process Miniscript inputs to contain potential crashes. Additionally, conduct thorough code audits and fuzz testing on script parsing components to identify and remediate similar resource exhaustion vulnerabilities. Maintain up-to-date threat intelligence to detect any emerging exploits targeting this vulnerability. Finally, ensure robust incident response plans are in place to quickly recover from potential denial of service incidents.

Description

The Miniscript (aka rust-miniscript) library before 12.2.0 for Rust allows stack consumption because it does not properly track tree depth.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-44073 is denial of service through stack exhaustion, which can cause applications using rust-miniscript to crash or become unresponsive. This can disrupt blockchain node operations, wallet services, or any cryptographic systems relying on this library, potentially leading to service outages or degraded performance. Since the vulnerability is remotely exploitable without authentication or user interaction, attackers can trigger the issue at scale, potentially causing widespread disruption. Although there is no direct impact on confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can affect transaction processing, consensus mechanisms, or user access to blockchain services. Organizations operating blockchain infrastructure, cryptocurrency exchanges, or financial services using rust-miniscript are at risk of operational interruptions. The lack of known exploits in the wild currently reduces immediate threat, but the vulnerability's ease of exploitation and high availability impact make it a critical concern for affected environments.

CWE-674Uncontrolled Recursion (opens in a new tab)
Class weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Implementation
Ensure that an end condition will be reached under all logic conditions. The end condition may include checking against the depth of recursion and exiting with an error if the recursion goes too deep. The complexity of the end condition contributes to the effectiveness of this action.
Implementation
Increase the stack size.
Attack patterns
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 Feb 2026, 06:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-674

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats