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Informational 19 Bitcoin

crypto: Gate all usage of hex-conservative behind hex feature

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Mitchell Bagot

73/100 · Adequate
crypto: Gate all usage of hex-conservative behind hex feature

Typically, all of the crates upstream of bitcoin have a hex feature
that gates the usage and inclusion of the hex-conservative crate.
Since the crypto crate functionality was crudely pulled from bitcoin,
this feature was not present but instead baked in as part of the
default functionality.

Introduce a hex feature which gates hex 1.1.0.
Add hex feature gates as necessary for existing functionality.
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Provides detailed explanatory context
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit reorganizes how an optional hex-encoding helper library is enabled in the bitcoin-crypto crate. It makes the hex-conservative dependency optional and gated behind a new 'hex' feature, instead of being included by default. The main bitcoin crate explicitly enables this feature, so end-user behavior is unchanged. This is a build/configuration cleanup, not a fix for an exploitable vulnerability.

Recommended action

No security action required. Treat as a normal dependency/feature refactor. Verify downstream crates that depend on bitcoin-crypto directly (not via bitcoin) enable the 'hex' feature if they require hex Display/FromStr functionality.

Security signals we found

01

No security-relevant code change: only feature-gating and dependency optionality

02

No input validation, buffer handling, or cryptographic operations modified

03

No advisory, CVE, or vendor security disclosure referenced in commit

04

Build-time feature reorganization with backward-compatible default behavior via parent crate enabling feature

Risk score

Why this scored 19/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 2/30
Exploitability 1/25
Stealth signal 1/15
Affected reach 3/15
Confidence 8/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

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