CVE-2018-20187: Medium severity botan vulnerability

Published Mar 8, 2019
·
Updated

A side-channel issue was discovered in Botan before 2.9.0. An attacker capable of precisely measuring the time taken for ECC key generation may be able to derive information about the high bits of the secret key, as the function to derive the public point from the secret scalar uses an unblinded Montgomery ladder whose loop iteration count depends on the bitlength of the secret. This issue affects only key generation, not ECDSA signatures or ECDH key agreement.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Botan Project Botan<2.9.0

Event History

Mar 8, 2019
CVE Published
via MITRE·07:00 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·07:00 PM
Description

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2018-20187?

The severity of CVE-2018-20187 is medium with a severity value of 5.9.

2

What software is affected by CVE-2018-20187?

Botan versions up to and excluding 2.9.0 are affected by CVE-2018-20187.

3

What is the CWE ID of CVE-2018-20187?

The CWE ID of CVE-2018-20187 is 320.

4

How can an attacker exploit CVE-2018-20187?

An attacker capable of precisely measuring the time taken for ECC key generation may be able to derive information about the high bits of the secret key.

5

Are there any references available for CVE-2018-20187?

Yes, you can find references for CVE-2018-20187 at the following links: [1](https://botan.randombit.net/news.html), [2](https://botan.randombit.net/security.html), [3](https://github.com/crocs-muni/ECTester).

Contact

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