Low severity · published Sep 29, 2026
CVE-2026-54872
Timing Side-Channel in Scalar Multiplication for Non-NIST EC Curves
3.7
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 37% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
OP
OpenSSL · OpenSSL
4.0.0 before 4.0.3; 3.6.0 before 3.6.5; 3.5.0 before 3.5.9; 3.4.0 before 3.4.8; 3.0.0 before 3.0.23; 1.1.1 before 1.1.1zj; +1 more · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54872
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-54872
vendor-advisory
https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260929.txt
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/8166827a78aad164a07aa86dea2b425403ced471
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/1a5bee8dc57430a2be69cd1ffe7fec6a62f4f179
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/3f7e1363dccec6f7732bb9e9fa471bb6e4aa68cb
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/7d83bc7764999dfd91b83b4f0815b45390422afd
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