Rust advisories / multihash
Vulnerability HighRUSTSEC-2020-0068 · multihash
RUSTSEC-2020-0068: Unexpected panic in multihash `from_slice` parsing code
Short answerA security vulnerability in the multihash crate: Unexpected panic in multihash `from_slice` parsing code. High severity (CVSS 7.5). Fixed in 0.11.3: update to a fixed version.
| Crate | multihash |
|---|---|
| Type | Vulnerability (denial-of-service) |
| Affected versions | Before 0.11.3. |
| Fixed in | 0.11.3 |
| Severity | High, CVSS 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| Published | 2020-11-08 |
| Last changed | 2023-11-08 |
| Also known as | CVE-2020-35909, GHSA-h7qh-3h6f-w79p |
| Affected functions | multihash::digests::MultihashGeneric::from_bytes, multihash::digests::MultihashRefGeneric::from_slice |
What to do
- See which version you have:
cargo tree -i multihash(it also shows which of your dependencies pulls it in). - Update within your version requirement:
cargo update -p multihash. If the fix is a newer major or minor than your requirement allows, raise it in Cargo.toml (for examplemultihash = "0.11.3") or update the dependency that pulls it in. - Check again with
cargo audit, or paste your Cargo.lock into our Cargo.toml checker.
Details from the advisory
In versions prior 0.11.3 it's possible to make from_slice panic by feeding it certain malformed input. It's never documented that from_slice (and from_bytes which wraps it) can panic, and its' return type (Result<Self, DecodeError>) suggests otherwise.
In practice, from_slice/from_bytes is frequently used in networking code (for example in rust-libp2p) and is being called with unsanitized data from untrusted sources. This can allow attackers to cause DoS by causing an unexpected panic in the network client's code.
References
- Package: crates.io/crates/multihash
- Advisory: rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2020-0068.html
- Web: github.com/multiformats/rust-multihash/pull/72
From the RustSec Advisory Database (CC0-1.0) via the OSV export, downloaded Oct 24, 2026. Severity score computed from the published CVSS vector.
Up next
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