# CVE-2024-1544: ECDSA nonce bias caused by truncation

> Side-channel leakage in ECDSA nonce generation allows attackers to recover private keys via lattice reduction.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 27 Jan 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2024-1544, GHSA-grjj-54gm-q5vf, JLSEC-2026-682, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-1544

## What is CVE-2024-1544?

CVE-2024-1544 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 27 Aug 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Generating the ECDSA nonce k samples a random number r and then 
truncates this randomness with a modular reduction mod n where n is the 
order of the elliptic curve. Meaning k = r mod n. The division used 
during the reduction estimates a factor q_e by dividing the upper two 
digits (a digit having e.g. a size of 8 byte) of r by the upper digit of 
n and then decrements q_e in a loop until it has the correct size. 
Observing the number of times q_e is decremented through a control-flow 
revealing side-channel reveals a bias in the most significant bits of 
k. Depending on the curve this is either a negligible bias or a 
significant bias large enough to reconstruct k with lattice reduction 
methods. For SECP160R1, e.g., we find a bias of 15 bits.

Weakness: CWE-203 (Observable Discrepancy)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-1544?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wolfssl Wolfssl.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-1544?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-1544 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-1544 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-2024-1544 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-1544 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl, published on 27 Aug 2024. 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-2024-1544 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-2024-1544/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-1544/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-1544
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-1544
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-1544

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-1544/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.