CVE-2019-15809: athena-scs idprotect Observable Discrepancy

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2019-15809 is a medium (CVSS 4.7) Observable Discrepancy vulnerability in athena-scs idprotect. EPSS estimates a 0.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 39.5% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 03-10-2019
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Smart cards from the Athena SCS manufacturer, based on the Atmel Toolbox 00.03.11.05 and the AT90SC chip, contain a timing side channel in ECDSA signature generation. This allows a local attacker, able to measure the duration of hundreds to thousands of signing operations, to compute the private key used. The issue occurs because the Atmel Toolbox 00.03.11.05 contains two versions of ECDSA signature functions, described as fast and secure, but the affected cards chose to use the fast version, which leaks the bit length of the random nonce via timing. This affects Athena IDProtect 010b.0352.0005, Athena IDProtect 010e.1245.0002, Athena IDProtect 0106.0130.0401, Athena IDProtect 010e.1245.0002, Valid S/A IDflex V 010b.0352.0005, SafeNet eToken 4300 010e.1245.0002, TecSec Armored Card 010e.0264.0001, and TecSec Armored Card 108.0264.0001.

• CWE-203Observable DiscrepancyThe product behaves differently or sends different responses under different circumstances in a way that is observable to an unauthorized actor.