CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-6258

Improper Protection of Physical Side Channels

Published: Jan 30, 2024 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
8.1
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

A security vulnerability has been identified in the pkcs11-provider, which is associated with Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS#11). If exploited successfully, this vulnerability could result in a Bleichenbacher-like security flaw, potentially enabling a side-channel attack on PKCS#1 1.5 decryption.

Weakness

The device does not contain sufficient protection mechanisms to prevent physical side channels from exposing sensitive information due to patterns in physically observable phenomena such as variations in power consumption, electromagnetic emissions (EME), or acoustic emissions.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Pkcs11-provider Latchset 0.1 (including) 0.1 (including)
Pkcs11-provider Ubuntu upstream *

Extended Description

An adversary could monitor and measure physical phenomena to detect patterns and make inferences, even if it is not possible to extract the information in the digital domain. Physical side channels have been well-studied for decades in the context of breaking implementations of cryptographic algorithms or other attacks against security features. These side channels may be easily observed by an adversary with physical access to the device, or using a tool that is in close proximity. If the adversary can monitor hardware operation and correlate its data processing with power, EME, and acoustic measurements, the adversary might be able to recover of secret keys and data.

Potential Mitigations

References