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Public proof of concept

CVE-2022-40769

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2022-09-18
  • WeaknessCWE-338

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

profanity through 1.60 has only four billion possible RNG initializations. Thus, attackers can recover private keys from Ethereum vanity addresses and steal cryptocurrency, as exploited in the wild in June 2022.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2022-09-1817:15CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Profanity project profanity
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.60≤ 1.60no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

No fix published by the sources we read yet. NVD record

Detection

read 2026-11-01 01:02 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Published
2022-09-18
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-9q2f-7hm7-62h6

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-40769?

profanity through 1.60 has only four billion possible RNG initializations. Thus, attackers can recover private keys from Ethereum vanity addresses and steal cryptocurrency, as exploited in the wild in June 2022.

Is CVE-2022-40769 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2022-40769 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.5% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2022-40769?

CVE-2022-40769 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

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Sources for this record