CVE-2018-20187

low-risk
Published 2019-03-08

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.

Do I need to act?

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0.49% chance of exploitation
EPSS score — low exploit probability
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Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
5
CVSS 5.9/10 Medium
NETWORK / HIGH complexity

Affected Products (1)

Affected Vendors

25
/ 100
low-risk
Severity 18/34 · Moderate
Exploitability 2/34 · Minimal
Exposure 5/34 · Minimal