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CWE-385

Covert Timing Channel

BaseIncompleteLikelihood: Medium

Description

Covert timing channels convey information by modulating some aspect of system behavior over time, so that the program receiving the information can observe system behavior and infer protected information.

Hierarchy (View 1000)

Parents

Children

none

Related attack patterns (CAPEC)

CAPEC-462

CVEs mapped to this weakness (13)

CVESevRiskCVSSEPSSKEVPublishedDescription
CVE-2026-5598Hig0.51—0.00Apr 15, 2026Covert timing channel vulnerability in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC-JAVA core on all (core modules). This vulnerability is associated with program files FrodoEngine.Java. This issue affects BC-JAVA: from 1.71 before 1.84.
CVE-2025-0306Hig0.487.40.00Jan 9, 2025A vulnerability was found in Ruby. The Ruby interpreter is vulnerable to the Marvin Attack. This attack allows the attacker to decrypt previously encrypted messages or forge signatures by exchanging a large number of messages with the vulnerable service.
CVE-2023-46809Hig0.487.40.01Sep 7, 2024Node.js versions which bundle an unpatched version of OpenSSL or run against a dynamically linked version of OpenSSL which are unpatched are vulnerable to the Marvin Attack - https://people.redhat.com/~hkario/marvin/, if PCKS #1 v1.5 padding is allowed when performing RSA descryption using a private key.
CVE-2026-6478Med0.426.50.00May 14, 2026Covert timing channel in comparison of MD5-hashed password in PostgreSQL authentication allows an attacker to recover user credentials sufficient to authenticate. This does not affect scram-sha-256 passwords, the default in all supported releases. However, current databases may have MD5-hashed passwords originating in upgrades from PostgreSQL 13 or earlier. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.4, 17.10, 16.14, 15.18, and 14.23 are affected.
CVE-2025-9231Med0.426.50.00Sep 30, 2025Issue summary: A timing side-channel which could potentially allow remote recovery of the private key exists in the SM2 algorithm implementation on 64 bit ARM platforms. Impact summary: A timing side-channel in SM2 signature computations on 64 bit ARM platforms could allow recovering the private key by an attacker.. While remote key recovery over a network was not attempted by the reporter, timing measurements revealed a timing signal which may allow such an attack. OpenSSL does not directly support certificates with SM2 keys in TLS, and so this CVE is not relevant in most TLS contexts. However, given that it is possible to add support for such certificates via a custom provider, coupled with the fact that in such a custom provider context the private key may be recoverable via remote timing measurements, we consider this to be a Moderate severity issue. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as SM2 is not an approved algorithm.
CVE-2025-29780Med0.38—0.00Mar 14, 2025Post-Quantum Secure Feldman's Verifiable Secret Sharing provides a Python implementation of Feldman's Verifiable Secret Sharing (VSS) scheme. In versions 0.8.0b2 and prior, the `feldman_vss` library contains timing side-channel vulnerabilities in its matrix operations, specifically within the `_find_secure_pivot` function and potentially other parts of `_secure_matrix_solve`. These vulnerabilities are due to Python's execution model, which does not guarantee constant-time execution. An attacker with the ability to measure the execution time of these functions (e.g., through repeated calls with carefully crafted inputs) could potentially recover secret information used in the Verifiable Secret Sharing (VSS) scheme. The `_find_secure_pivot` function, used during Gaussian elimination in `_secure_matrix_solve`, attempts to find a non-zero pivot element. However, the conditional statement `if matrix[row][col] != 0 and row_random < min_value:` has execution time that depends on the value of `matrix[row][col]`. This timing difference can be exploited by an attacker. The `constant_time_compare` function in this file also does not provide a constant-time guarantee. The Python implementation of matrix operations in the _find_secure_pivot and _secure_matrix_solve functions cannot guarantee constant-time execution, potentially leaking information about secret polynomial coefficients. An attacker with the ability to make precise timing measurements of these operations could potentially extract secret information through statistical analysis of execution times, though practical exploitation would require significant expertise and controlled execution environments. Successful exploitation of these timing side-channels could allow an attacker to recover secret keys or other sensitive information protected by the VSS scheme. This could lead to a complete compromise of the shared secret. As of time of publication, no patched versions of Post-Quantum Secure Feldman's Verifiable Secret Sharing exist, but other mitigations are available. As acknowledged in the library's documentation, these vulnerabilities cannot be adequately addressed in pure Python. In the short term, consider using this library only in environments where timing measurements by attackers are infeasible. In the medium term, implement your own wrappers around critical operations using constant-time libraries in languages like Rust, Go, or C. In the long term, wait for the planned Rust implementation mentioned in the library documentation that will properly address these issues.
CVE-2024-2236Med0.385.90.01Mar 6, 2024A timing-based side-channel flaw was found in libgcrypt's RSA implementation. This issue may allow a remote attacker to initiate a Bleichenbacher-style attack, which can lead to the decryption of RSA ciphertexts.
CVE-2025-59432Med0.36—0.00Sep 22, 2025SCRAM (Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism) is part of the family of Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL, RFC 4422) authentication mechanisms. Prior to version 3.2, a timing attack vulnerability exists in the SCRAM Java implementation. The issue arises because Arrays.equals was used to compare secret values such as client proofs and server signatures. Since Arrays.equals performs a short-circuit comparison, the execution time varies depending on how many leading bytes match. This behavior could allow an attacker to perform a timing side-channel attack and potentially infer sensitive authentication material. All users relying on SCRAM authentication are impacted. This vulnerability has been patched in version 3.1 by replacing Arrays.equals with MessageDigest.isEqual, which ensures constant-time comparison.
CVE-2025-27587Med0.345.30.00Jun 16, 2025OpenSSL 3.0.0 through 3.3.2 on the PowerPC architecture is vulnerable to a Minerva attack, exploitable by measuring the time of signing of random messages using the EVP_DigestSign API, and then using the private key to extract the K value (nonce) from the signatures. Next, based on the bit size of the extracted nonce, one can compare the signing time of full-sized nonces to signatures that used smaller nonces, via statistical tests. There is a side-channel in the P-364 curve that allows private key extraction (also, there is a dependency between the bit size of K and the size of the side channel). NOTE: This CVE is disputed because the OpenSSL security policy explicitly notes that any side channels which require same physical system to be detected are outside of the threat model for the software. The timing signal is so small that it is infeasible to be detected without having the attacking process running on the same physical system.
CVE-2025-66442Med0.335.10.00Apr 1, 2026In Mbed TLS through 4.0.0, there is a compiler-induced timing side channel (in RSA and CBC/ECB decryption) that only occurs with LLVM's select-optimize feature. TF-PSA-Crypto through 1.0.0 is also affected.
CVE-2025-69893Med0.304.60.00Apr 14, 2026A side-channel vulnerability exists in the implementation of BIP-39 mnemonic processing, as observed in Trezor One v1.13.0 to v1.14.0, Trezor T v1.13.0 to v1.14.0, and Trezor Safe v1.13.0 to v1.14.0 hardware wallets. This originates from the BIP-39 standard guidelines, which induce non-constant time execution and specific branch patterns for word searching. An attacker with physical access during the initial setup phase can collect a single side-channel trace. By utilizing profiling-based Deep Learning Side-Channel Analysis (DL-SCA), the attacker can recover the mnemonic code and subsequently steal the assets. The issue was patched.
CVE-2024-11862Med0.26—0.00Nov 27, 2024Non constant time cryptographic operation in Devolutions.XTS.NET 2024.11.19 and earlier allows an attacker to render half of the encryption key obsolete via a timing attacks
CVE-2024-13176Med0.204.10.00Jan 20, 2025Issue summary: A timing side-channel which could potentially allow recovering the private key exists in the ECDSA signature computation. Impact summary: A timing side-channel in ECDSA signature computations could allow recovering the private key by an attacker. However, measuring the timing would require either local access to the signing application or a very fast network connection with low latency. There is a timing signal of around 300 nanoseconds when the top word of the inverted ECDSA nonce value is zero. This can happen with significant probability only for some of the supported elliptic curves. In particular the NIST P-521 curve is affected. To be able to measure this leak, the attacker process must either be located in the same physical computer or must have a very fast network connection with low latency. For that reason the severity of this vulnerability is Low. The FIPS modules in 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are affected by this issue.