CVE-2026-54872 — Timing Side-Channel in Scalar Multiplication for Non-NIST EC Curves

Affected: OpenSSL

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.

USN-8847-1 — openssl vulnerabilities

Affected: Ubuntu:22.04:LTS: openssl, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS: openssl, Ubuntu:26.04:LTS: openssl

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly handled certain certificate revocation list distribution point names. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause OpenSSL to consume excessive memory, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-35189)

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly handled QUIC unvalidated amplification credit accounting. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-35191)

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly implemented scalar multiplication for non-NIST elliptic curves. An attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a timing side-channel attack and obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2026-54872)

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly implemented SM2 scalar multiplication on ARM64 and RISC-V architectures. An attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a timing side-channel attack and obtain sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-54875)

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly handled SSL context switching during a TLS handshake. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause an out-of-bounds read, resulting in a denial of service or obtaining sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-72897)

It was discovered that OpenSSL incorrectly enforced QUIC connection- level flow control for streams. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause OpenSSL to consume excess…

Most recent entries from all

CVE-2026-54872 — Timing Side-Channel in Scalar Multiplication for Non-NIST EC Curves

USN-8847-1 — openssl vulnerabilities