ECDSA and SM2 signature operations with curves that do not have a dedicated
implementation leaks information about the secret nonce through timing.
Impact summary: An attacker able to measure signing times may learn
information about the per-signature secret nonce, which over many signatures
can, via a lattice / Hidden Number Problem attack, lead to recovery of the
private key.
CWE: CWE-208: Observable Timing Discrepancy
Description: The generic elliptic-curve scalar multiplication used for
curves that do not have a dedicated constant-time implementation pads the
secret scalar with non-constant-time BIGNUM operations, so the time taken
depends on the value of the secret scalar derived from the ECDSA and SM2 nonce.
The leak is very small; observing it requires a large number of
measurements. The effect is largest for curves whose group order lies
on a machine-word boundary, such as brainpoolP384r1.
Applications using ECDSA signing over the Brainpool and other generic prime
curves, and SM2 signing on platforms that use the generic implementation,
are vulnerable to this issue.
The NIST curves P-256, P-384 and P-521 use dedicated constant-time
implementations and are not affected.
FIPS Impact: no
The FIPS modules are not affected: the approved NIST curves used in the FIPS
provider have dedicated constant-time implementations and do not use the
affected code path.
Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.
Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Tracking
Sign in to view the affected projects.
| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8847-1 | OpenSSL vulnerabilities |
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
|
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared |
Openssl
Openssl openssl |
|
| Vendors & Products |
Openssl
Openssl openssl |
Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Issue summary: The generic elliptic-curve scalar multiplication used for ECDSA and SM2 signature operations with curves that do not have a dedicated implementation leaks information about the secret nonce through timing. Impact summary: An attacker able to measure signing times may learn information about the per-signature secret nonce, which over many signatures can, via a lattice / Hidden Number Problem attack, lead to recovery of the private key. CWE: CWE-208: Observable Timing Discrepancy Description: The generic elliptic-curve scalar multiplication used for curves that do not have a dedicated constant-time implementation pads the secret scalar with non-constant-time BIGNUM operations, so the time taken depends on the value of the secret scalar derived from the ECDSA and SM2 nonce. The leak is very small; observing it requires a large number of measurements. The effect is largest for curves whose group order lies on a machine-word boundary, such as brainpoolP384r1. Applications using ECDSA signing over the Brainpool and other generic prime curves, and SM2 signing on platforms that use the generic implementation, are vulnerable to this issue. The NIST curves P-256, P-384 and P-521 use dedicated constant-time implementations and are not affected. FIPS Impact: no The FIPS modules are not affected: the approved NIST curves used in the FIPS provider have dedicated constant-time implementations and do not use the affected code path. | |
| Title | Timing Side-Channel in Scalar Multiplication for Non-NIST EC Curves | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-208 | |
| References |
|
|
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: openssl
Published:
Updated: 2026-09-29T17:28:12.657Z
Reserved: 2026-06-16T10:18:08.635Z
Link: CVE-2026-54872
Updated: 2026-09-29T17:28:09.184Z
Status : Received
Published: 2026-09-29T16:17:08.623
Modified: 2026-09-29T18:17:15.870
Link: CVE-2026-54872
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-09-29T17:30:17Z
Ubuntu USN