CVE-2002-20001

HIGHNVD 7.57.5
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.5 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-04-21. NVD baseline CVSS 7.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
7.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 23%CVSS: 7.5Exploit: Elevated riskExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol allows remote attackers (from the client side) to send arbitrary numbers that are actually not public keys, and trigger expensive server-side DHE modular-exponentiation calculations, aka a D(HE)at or D(HE)ater attack. The client needs very little CPU resources and network bandwidth. The attack may be more disruptive in cases where a client can require a server to select its largest supported key size. The basic attack scenario is that the client must claim that it can only communicate with DHE, and the server must be configured to allow DHE.

CVSS v3
7.5
EG Score
7.5(medium)
EG Risk
54(Track)
EG Risk 54/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity75% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
23%
EPSS %ILE
98%
KEV
Not listed

Published

November 11, 2021

Last Modified

August 22, 2025

Advisory Details (8)

Auto-updated Jul 24, 2026
🔬 Proof of concept available. No patch confirmed yet.
generic

Configuring supported TLS groups in OpenSSL | OpenSSL Library

https://www.openssl.org/blog/blog/2022/10/21/tls-groups-configuration/
generic🟡 PoC Available

D(HE)at Attack / DHEater · GitLab

https://gitlab.com/dheatattack/dheater
generic🟡 PoC Available

Stop recommending DHE, because of "dheater" vulnerability · Issue #299 · mozilla/server-side-tls · GitHub

https://github.com/mozilla/ssl-config-generator/issues/162
generic🟡 PoC Available

GitHub - c0r0n3r/dheater: D(HE)ater is a proof of concept implementation of the D(HE)at attack (CVE-2002-20001) through which denial-of-service can be performed by enforcing the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. (read-only clone of the original GitLab project) · GitHub

https://github.com/Balasys/dheater
generic

D(HE)at Attack | D(HE)at Attack

https://dheatattack.gitlab.io/
generic

D(HE)at Attack | D(HE)at Attack

https://dheatattack.com

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 21× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-25 14:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-24 14:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 00:44 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-23 00:26 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-22 23:49 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-22 21:29 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-07-20 17:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-19 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-18 09:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-18 09:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-16 16:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-15 01:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-15 01:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-08 15:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-04 06:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-02 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-28 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-28 04:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-27 03:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-23 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 40 more
  1. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-15 17:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-14 23:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-14 23:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-13 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-11 13:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-10 22:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-10 13:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-07 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-04 13:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-05-29 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-05-29 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-05-27 13:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-05-26 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-05-26 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-05-26 07:40 UTCEG score recompute
  37. 2026-05-26 07:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  38. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-05-24 16:42 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCc0r0n3r/dheater
    First seen Aug 31, 2021

    D(HE)ater is a proof of concept implementation of the D(HE)at attack (CVE-2002-20001) through which denial-of-service can be performed by enforcing the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. (read-only clone of the original GitLab project)

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2002-20001?
CVE-2002-20001 is a high vulnerability published on November 11, 2021. The Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement Protocol allows remote attackers (from the client side) to send arbitrary numbers that are actually not public keys, and trigger expensive server-side DHE modular-exponentiation calculations, aka a D(HE)at or D(HE)ater attack. The client needs very little CPU…
When was CVE-2002-20001 disclosed?
CVE-2002-20001 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on November 11, 2021, with the most recent update on August 22, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2002-20001 actively exploited?
CVE-2002-20001 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 23% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 2.5% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2002-20001?
CVE-2002-20001 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2002-20001?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2002-20001, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2002-20001

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2002-20001?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.