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Security Advisory - Cache Timing Vulnerability in OpenSSL RSA Key Generation

  • SA No:huawei-sa-20181212-01-cache
  • Initial Release Date: 2018-12-12
  • Last Release Date: 2018-12-12

The OpenSSL RSA Key generation algorithm has been shown to be vulnerable to a cache timing side channel attack (CVE-2018-0737). An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to recover the private key. (Vulnerability ID: HWPSIRT-2018-06015)

Huawei has released software updates to fix this vulnerability. This advisory is available at the following link: https://www.huawei.com/cn/psirt/security-advisories/huawei-sa-20181212-01-cache-en.


Product Name

Affected Version

Resolved Product and Version

TE30

V600R006C10

V600R006C10SPC400

TE40

V600R006C10

V600R006C10SPC400

TE50

V600R006C10

V600R006C10SPC400

TE60

V600R006C10

V600R006C10SPC400


An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to recover the private key.


The vulnerability classification has been performed by using the CVSSv3 scoring system (http://www.first.org/cvss/specification-document).

Base Score: 5.9 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N) 

Temporal Score: 5.5 (E:F/RL:O/RC:C) 

Overall Score: 5.5

This vulnerability can be exploited only when the following conditions are present:

The attacker could gain access to the network.

Vulnerability details:

The OpenSSL RSA Key generation algorithm has been shown to be vulnerable to a cache timing side channel attack. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to recover the private key.


Customers should contact Huawei TAC (Huawei Technical Assistance Center) to request the upgrades. For TAC contact information, please refer to Huawei worldwide website at http://www.huawei.com/en/psirt/report-vulnerabilities.

This vulnerability was disclosed by OpenSSL.

2018-12-12 V1.0 INITIAL

Huawei adheres to protecting the ultimate interests of users with best efforts and the principle of responsible disclosure and deal with product security issues through our response mechanism.

To enjoy Huawei PSIRT services and obtain Huawei product vulnerability information, please visit http://www.huawei.com/en/psirt.

To report a security vulnerability in Huawei products and solutions, please send it to PSIRT@huawei.com. For details, please visit http://www.huawei.com/en/psirt/report-vulnerabilities.

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