Non-Constant-Time SM2 Scalar Multiplication on ARM64 and RISC-V

Summary

CVECVE-2026-54875
StatePUBLISHED
Assigneropenssl
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-09-29 16:17:08 UTC
Updated2026-09-29 21:27:41 UTC
DescriptionIssue summary: A non-constant-time optimized implementation of scalar point multiplication is used for SM2 private key operations on ARM64 and RISC-V platforms. Impact summary: An attacker able to measure the time taken by, or to observe the cache-line access pattern of SM2 signing or decryption on an affected platform can learn information about the secret scalar. CWE: CWE-208: Observable Timing Discrepancy Description: On ARM64 and RISC-V processors, the SM2 curve uses an optimized scalar multiplication implementation whose conditional branches and table look ups are chosen according to the bits of the secret scalar. The execution time and the cache-access pattern therefore depend on the long-term private key (during SM2 decryption) or the per-signature nonce (during SM2 signature generation), forming a timing and cache side-channel. FIPS Impact: no SM2 is not a FIPS algorithm and the optimized SM2 implementation is not part of the FIPS module. OpenSSL 4.0, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.4 are vulnerable to this issue on AArch64 and RISC-V. OpenSSL 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue. OpenSSL 4.0 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 4.0.3. OpenSSL 3.6 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.6.5. OpenSSL 3.5 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.5.9. OpenSSL 3.4 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 3.4.8. This issue was reported on 2 May 2026 by Abhinav Agarwal. It was independently reported on 6 June 2026 by Feng Xue. The fix was developed by Igor Ustinov. -- cut (non-publishing metadata for internal use) -- Reported by: Abhinav Agarwal, Feng Xue Fixed by: Igor Ustinov

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 3.7 LOW from ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Problem Types: CWE-208 | CWE-208 CWE-208 Observable Timing Discrepancy


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ADPDECLARED3.7LOWCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
3.1134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0Secondary3.7LOWCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 4.0.0 4.0.3 semver Not specified
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.6.0 3.6.5 semver Not specified
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.5.0 3.5.9 semver Not specified
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.4.0 3.4.8 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/dddad955d5ff3e9507619cf4e0f13e9988e2197c [email protected] github.com
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/9794ed473764839275cb701b4850f3c24d929c28 [email protected] github.com
openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260929.txt [email protected] openssl-library.org
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/3f01bbc28f7e08211fcdc797fd43816504f94257 [email protected] github.com
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/469f3e42629f4a0b5631796e20c66c92c138a3e8 [email protected] github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Abhinav Agarwal (en)

CNA: Feng Xue (en)

CNA: Igor Ustinov (en)

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