Description
An issue was discovered in Arm Mbed TLS before 2.16.6 and 2.7.x before 2.7.15. An attacker that can get precise enough side-channel measurements can recover the long-term ECDSA private key by (1) reconstructing the projective coordinate of the result of scalar multiplication by exploiting side channels in the conversion to affine coordinates; (2) using an attack described by Naccache, Smart, and Stern in 2003 to recover a few bits of the ephemeral scalar from those projective coordinates via several measurements; and (3) using a lattice attack to get from there to the long-term ECDSA private key used for the signatures. Typically an attacker would have sufficient access when attacking an SGX enclave and controlling the untrusted OS.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-0.1 | — |
| Debian 13 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-0.1 | — |
| Debian 12 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-0.1 | — |
| Debian 10 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-0~deb10u1 | DLA-3249-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | mbedtls | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | mbedtls | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | mbedtls | No fix yet | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUSE Package Hub 15 SP2 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-bp152.2.3.1 | openSUSE-SU-2021:0397-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 15.2 | mbedtls | 2.16.9-lp152.2.3.1 | openSUSE-SU-2021:0384-1 |
Alpine
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.24 | mbedtls +2 | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.23 | mbedtls +1 | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.22 | mbedtls +1 | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.21 | mbedtls +1 | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.20 | mbedtls +1 | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
Show 10 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.19 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.18 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.17 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.16 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.15 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.14 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.13 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.12 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.11 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.10 | mbedtls | 2.16.6-r0 | — |
Advisories 3
- DLA-3249-1 mbedtls - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2021:0397-1 Security update for mbedtls SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2021:0384-1 Security update for mbedtls SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
References
- https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/security-advisories
- https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/security-advisories/mbedtls-security-advisory-2020-04
- https://tls.mbed.org/tech-updates/releases/mbedtls-2.16.6-and-2.7.15-released
- FEDORA-2020-9a6e8e63e9 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-42564738a1 vendor-advisory
- [debian-lts-announce] 20221225 [SECURITY] [DLA 3249-1] mbedtls security update mailing-list