CVE-2025-48886 MEDIUM

CVE-2025-48886: hydra-node dangerously assumes L1 event finality and does not consider failed transactions

Vendor Cardano-Scaling
Product hydra
Weakness CWE-755
Published June 19, 2025
Last update June 23, 2025

CVSS base score

4.8/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity High
Privileges required Low
User interaction Required
Confidentiality None
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

June 19, 2025 CVE published
June 23, 2025 Record updated