CVE-2019-15809

low-risk
Published 2019-10-03

Smart cards from the Athena SCS manufacturer, based on the Atmel Toolbox 00.03.11.05 and the AT90SC chip, contain a timing side channel in ECDSA signature generation. This allows a local attacker, able to measure the duration of hundreds to thousands of signing operations, to compute the private key used. The issue occurs because the Atmel Toolbox 00.03.11.05 contains two versions of ECDSA signature functions, described as fast and secure, but the affected cards chose to use the fast version, which leaks the bit length of the random nonce via timing. This affects Athena IDProtect 010b.0352.0005, Athena IDProtect 010e.1245.0002, Athena IDProtect 0106.0130.0401, Athena IDProtect 010e.1245.0002, Valid S/A IDflex V 010b.0352.0005, SafeNet eToken 4300 010e.1245.0002, TecSec Armored Card 010e.0264.0001, and TecSec Armored Card 108.0264.0001.

Do I need to act?

-
0.10% chance of exploitation
EPSS score — low exploit probability
-
Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
4
CVSS 4.7/10 Medium
LOCAL / HIGH complexity

Affected Products (8)

Atmel Toolbox
Idprotect
Idprotect
Idprotect
S\/A Idflex V
Armored Card
Armored Card
Etoken 4300
26
/ 100
low-risk
Severity 12/34 · Low
Exploitability 0/34 · Minimal
Exposure 14/34 · Moderate