Impact
A malformed Orchard transaction may contain an rk (randomized validating key) set to the elliptic curve identity point, which is allowed by the Zcash specification but causes a panic in the orchid crate used by ZEBRA node verification. The panic terminates the node, resulting in a loss of service availability. This flaw is a classic instance of a bad input leading to code execution path failure and is classified as CWE‑617.
Affected Systems
The vulnerability affects node implementations built on the ZcashFoundation:zebra framework, specifically versions of zebrad earlier than 4.3.1 and zebra-chain earlier than 6.0.2.
Risk and Exploitability
The CVSS score of 9.2 indicates a high severity exploitability. No EPSS score is currently available, and the issue is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. An attacker can craft a transaction containing an identity rk value and inject it into any Zebra node’s transaction pool, which is generally reachable over the network. No privileged local access or additional preconditions are required, making the attack remotely feasible.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Github GHSA