Vega's validators able to submit duplicate transactions

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

6.0 · CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:L

EPSS

• CVE-2023-35163: 0.49% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 42.21 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

A vulnerability exists that allows a malicious validator to trick the Vega network into re-processing past Ethereum events from Vega’s Ethereum bridge. For example, a deposit to the collateral bridge for 100USDT that credits a party’s general account on Vega, can be re-processed 50 times resulting in 5000USDT in that party’s general account. This is without depositing any more than the original 100USDT on the bridge. Despite this exploit requiring access to a validator's Vega key, a validator key can be obtained at the small cost of 3000VEGA, the amount needed to announce a new node onto the network. The steps to carry out this exploit are as follows: 1. Cause an Ethereum event on one of the bridge contracts e.g a deposit to the collateral bridge, or the staking bridge 2. This will result in the Ethereum-event-forwarder of each node to submit a ChainEvent transaction to the Vega network corresponding to that event 3. Scrape the valid chain event transaction from the Tendermint block…

Published by the source

20 Jun 2023, 16:36 UTC

Last modified by the source

7 Nov 2023, 05:02 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:59 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-8rc9-vxjh-qjf2

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-35163

Advisory: Vega's validators able to submit duplicate transactions
IDs: CVE-2023-35163, GHSA-8rc9-vxjh-qjf2
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-35163 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:59 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.0)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: code.vegaprotocol.io/vega 0.71.6. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go code.vegaprotocol.io/vega: affected < 0.71.6; fixed in 0.71.6

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go code.vegaprotocol.io/vega: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on code.vegaprotocol.io/vega.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8rc9-vxjh-qjf2 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-8rc9-vxjh-qjf2 lists affected ranges: Go code.vegaprotocol.io/vega >=0 <0.71.6)

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