CVE-2025-9231

Public on 2025-09-30
Modified on 2025-10-01
Description
Issue 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.
Severity
Medium severity
Medium
See what this means
CVSS v3 Base Score
5.9
See breakdown

Affected Packages

Platform Package Release Date Advisory Status
Amazon Linux 2 - Core edk2 Not Affected
Amazon Linux 2 - Core openssl Not Affected
Amazon Linux 2023 openssl 2025-10-14 ALAS2023-2025-1225 Fixed
Amazon Linux 2 - Openssl-snapsafe Extra openssl-snapsafe Not Affected
Amazon Linux 2 - Core openssl11 Not Affected

CVSS Scores

Score Type Score Vector
Amazon Linux CVSSv3 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD CVSSv3 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L