CVE-2021-33560

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2021-33560  

Libgcrypt before 1.8.8 and 1.9.x before 1.9.3 mishandles ElGamal encryption because it lacks exponent blinding to address a side-channel attack against mpi_powm, and the window size is not chosen appropriately. (There is also an interoperability problem because the selection of the k integer value does not properly consider the differences between basic ElGamal encryption and generalized ElGamal encryption.) This, for example, affects use of ElGamal in OpenPGP.

Description

The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as:

Libgcrypt before 1.8.8 and 1.9.x before 1.9.3 mishandles ElGamal encryption because it lacks exponent blinding to address a side-channel attack against mpi_powm, and the window size is not chosen appropriately. (There is also an interoperability problem because the selection of the k integer value does not properly consider the differences between basic ElGamal encryption and generalized ElGamal encryption.) This, for example, affects use of ElGamal in OpenPGP.

Additional Information

  • Bugzilla 1970096: CVE-2021-33560 libgcrypt: mishandles ElGamal encryption because it lacks exponent blinding to address a side-channel attack against mpi_powm
  • CWE-327: Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
  • FAQ: Frequently asked questions about CVE-2021-33560