# CVE-2018-12436: Information disclosure in n/a

> Attackers with local or adjacent VM access can recover ECDSA private keys via cache side-channel attacks in wolfSSL.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Jun 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12436, GHSA-383q-q8wg-6p5v, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12436

## What is CVE-2018-12436?

CVE-2018-12436 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 15 Jun 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

wolfcrypt/src/ecc.c in wolfSSL before 3.15.1.patch allows a memory-cache side-channel attack on ECDSA signatures, aka the Return Of the Hidden Number Problem or ROHNP. To discover an ECDSA key, the attacker needs access to either the local machine or a different virtual machine on the same physical host.

Weakness: CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-12436?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wolfssl Wolfssl.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-12436?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-12436 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-12436 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Wolfssl Wolfssl

- [CVE-2024-5991](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5991/): Buffer overread in domain name matching (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-37155](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-37155/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-36177](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36177/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-2896](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-2896/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-2897](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-2897/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-12436 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-12436 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 15 Jun 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-12436 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Wolfssl Wolfssl. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12436/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12436/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-12436
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12436
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-12436

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12436/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.