CVE-2025-48886

hydra-node dangerously assumes L1 event finality and does not consider failed transactions

Severity Score

4.8

*CVSS v3.1

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

*KEV

Decision

Track*

*SSVC

Descriptions

Hydra is a layer-two scalability solution for Cardano. Prior to version 0.22.0, the process assumes L1 event finality and does not consider failed transactions. Currently, Cardano L1 is monitored for certain events which are necessary for state progression. At the moment, Hydra considers those events as finalized as soon as they are recognized by the node participants making such transactions the target of re-org attacks. The system does not currently consider the fact that failed transactions on the Cardano L1 can indeed appear in blocks because these transactions are so infrequent. This issue has been patched in version 0.22.0.

*Credits: N/A

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

High

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

Required

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

High

Availability

None

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

High

Authentication

Single

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

Complete

Availability

None

* Common Vulnerability Scoring System

SSVC

Decision:Track*

Exploitation

Poc

Automatable

Tech. Impact

Partial

* Organization's Worst-case Scenario

Timeline

2025-05-27 CVE Reserved
2025-06-19 CVE Published
2025-06-23 CVE Updated
2025-07-21 EPSS Updated
---------- Exploited in Wild
---------- KEV Due Date
---------- First Exploit

CWE

CWE-755: Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions

CAPEC

References (3)

URL	Tag	Source
https://github.com/cardano-scaling/hydra/commit/2bc6a82ef6dbfa8b94e1c11d55253713065f605e	X_refsource_misc
https://github.com/cardano-scaling/hydra/commit/fb22d968964bf5d5b79227cc845d871147044ce7	X_refsource_misc
https://github.com/cardano-scaling/hydra/security/advisories/GHSA-qr9f-mpgf-wp25	X_refsource_confirm

URL	Date	SRC

URL	Date	SRC

URL	Date	SRC

Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions

Vendor		Product				Version		Other		Status
Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status	<-- -->	Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status
Cardano-scaling Search vendor "Cardano-scaling"		Hydra Search vendor "Cardano-scaling" for product "Hydra"				< 0.22.0 Search vendor "Cardano-scaling" for product "Hydra" and version " < 0.22.0"		en		Affected