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0xCERT Security Advisory 0xCERT-2026-0276
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Advisory-ID:  0xCERT-2026-0276
Severity:     High
Published:    2026-10-25T12:16:29.000Z
Updated:      2026-10-25T12:42:22.280Z
Chains:       n/a
URL:          https://www.0xcert.com/advisory/0xCERT-2026-0276

Title: rotki before 1.44.2: unsalted SHA-256 premium sync key lets attackers brute-force encrypted cloud backups

Summary
- -------
rotki before 1.44.2 derives its premium cloud-backup key from a single unsalted SHA-256 of the user password, so anyone holding a backup blob can guess passwords offline and decrypt exchange API keys and wallet data. Upgrade to 1.44.2 and rotate exchange API keys.

Details
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Summary
rotki, an open-source crypto portfolio tracker, derived the encryption key for premium cloud-sync backups from a single unsalted SHA-256 hash of the user password. An attacker who obtains an uploaded backup blob can run GPU-parallel offline password guessing and decrypt the user database.

Affected
- - rotki (rotkehlchen) versions before 1.44.2
- - Fixed in 1.44.2 (per VulnCheck / NVD; see rotki PR #13401)

Impact
A decrypted backup exposes exchange API keys and secrets, tracked wallet addresses, and transaction history. The attacker must first obtain a backup blob; the weakness (CWE-916) then allows offline brute-forcing of the password. VulnCheck scores it CVSS 4.0 8.2 (High); the CVSS 3.1 score is 5.9 (Medium). Exploitation in the wild is not reported by the source.

Recommended actions
- - Upgrade rotki to 1.44.2 or later
- - Premium users with cloud sync enabled: rotate exchange API keys/secrets stored in rotki, and change the rotki password if it is weak or reused
- - Prefer read-only, IP-restricted exchange API keys

Source & attribution
This 0xCERT advisory summarises a disclosure by VulnCheck (credit: George Chen): https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rotki-before-1.44.2-weak-key-derivation-for-premium-cloud-backup-encryption. Details may change; refer to the original source for the authoritative record.

References
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- - https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rotki-before-1.44.2-weak-key-derivation-for-premium-cloud-backup-encryption
- - CVE-2026-116071
- - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-116071
- - https://github.com/rotki/rotki/issues/13393
- - https://github.com/rotki/rotki/pull/13401
- - https://github.com/rotki/rotki/releases/tag/v1.44.2

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