CVE-2023-38698.eth registrar controller can shorten the duration of registered names
- 4.9MediumCVSS base score
- 0.85%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 41% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain. According to the documentation, controllers are allowed to register new domains and extend the expiry of existing domains, but they cannot change the ownership or reduce the expiration time of existing domains. However, a preliminary analysis suggests that an attacker-controlled controller may be able to reduce the expiration time of existing domains due to an integer overflow in the renew function. The vulnerability resides `@ensdomains/ens-contracts` prior to version 0.0.22. If successfully exploited, this vulnerability would enable attackers to force the expiration of any ENS record, ultimately allowing them to claim the affected domains for themselves. Currently, it would require a malicious DAO to exploit it. Nevertheless, any vulnerability present in the controllers could potentially render this issue exploitable in the future. An additional concern is the possibility of renewal discounts. Should ENS decide to implement a system that offers unlimited .eth domains for a fixed fee in the future, the vulnerability could become exploitable by any user due to the reduced attack cost. Version 0.0.22 contains a patch for this issue. As long as registration cost remains linear or superlinear based on registration duration, or limited to a reasonable maximum (eg, 1 million years), this vulnerability could only be exploited by a malicious DAO. The interim workaround is thus to take no action.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 11 days later
· 11 days later
Published
- 14 months later
· 14 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium4.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.85% · top 41% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.9.
Affected products
- affected <= 0.0.21
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- npm@ensdomains/ens-contractsGHSA-rrxv-q8m4-wch3 (opens in a new tab)
References
References3
- https://github.com/ensdomains/ens-contracts/security/advisories/GHSA-rrxv-q8m4-wch3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/ensdomains/ens-contracts/commit/e6b136e979084de3761c125142620304173990ca (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/ensdomains/ens-contracts/blob/master/contracts/ethregistrar/BaseRegistrarImplementation.sol#L171 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-2350 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-rrxv-q8m4-wch3 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-38698)Record last updated .