GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io

GHSA-x4gp-pqpj-f43q curve25519-dalek has timing variability in `curve25519-dalek`'s `Scalar29::sub`/`Scalar52::sub`

LOW Published 2024-06-18 Modified 2026-02-17 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2024-58262
Ecosystem
crates.io
Packages
curve25519-dalek
Severity
Low
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Weaknesses
CWE-203
Reviewed
2024-06-18

Affected packages

• crates.io curve25519-dalek: < 4.1.3 → fixed in 4.1.3

Description

Timing variability of any kind is problematic when working with potentially secret values such as elliptic curve scalars, and such issues can potentially leak private keys and other secrets. Such a problem was recently discovered in `curve25519-dalek`. The `Scalar29::sub` (32-bit) and `Scalar52::sub` (64-bit) functions contained usage of a mask value inside a loop where LLVM saw an opportunity to insert a branch instruction (`jns` on x86) to conditionally bypass this code section when the mask value is set to zero as can be seen in godbolt: • 32-bit (see L106): https://godbolt.org/z/zvaWxzvqv • 64-bit (see L48): https://godbolt.org/z/PczYj7Pda A similar problem was recently discovered in the Kyber reference implementation: https://groups.google.com/a/list.nist.gov/g/pqc-forum/c/hqbtIGFKIpU/m/cnE3pbueBgAJ As discussed on that thread, one portable solution, which is also used in this PR, is to introduce a volatile read as an optimization barrier, which prevents the compiler from optimizing it away. The fix can be validated in godbolt here: • 32-bit: https://godbolt.org/z/jc9j7eb8E • 64-bit: https://godbolt.org/z/x8d46Yfah The problem was discovered and the solution independently verified by Alexander Wagner and Lea Themint using their DATA tool: https://github.com/Fraunhofer-AISEC/DATA

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2024-58262 The curve25519-dalek crate before 4.1.3 for Rust has a constant-time operation on elliptic curve scalars that is removed by LLVM. vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy weakness

References