CVE-2023-33982 — Bramble Handshake Protocol (BHP) in Briar before 1

Bramble Handshake Protocol (BHP) in Briar before 1.5.3 is not forward secure: eavesdroppers can decrypt network traffic between two accounts if they later compromise both accounts. NOTE: the eavesdropping is typically impractical because BHP runs over an encrypted session that us

01What is this vulnerability?

Bramble Handshake Protocol (BHP) in Briar before 1.5.3 is not forward secure: eavesdroppers can decrypt network traffic between two accounts if they later compromise both accounts. NOTE: the eavesdropping is typically impractical because BHP runs over an encrypted session that uses the Tor hidden service protocol.

02Affected products

No structured affected-product list available — see references below for vendor advisories.

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-05-24T18:15:10.927
• Last modified: 2026-06-17T06:02:39.293

09References

• briarproject.org — https://briarproject.org/news/2023-three-security-issues-found-and-fixed/
• ethz.ch — https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/infk/inst-infsec/appliedcrypto…
• briarproject.org — https://briarproject.org/news/2023-three-security-issues-found-and-fixed/
• ethz.ch — https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/infk/inst-infsec/appliedcrypto…