CVE-2026-65630
Description
A flaw was found in jose. The pure-Erlang fallback implementation of the X25519 cryptographic algorithm performs operations whose execution times vary depending on the secret key. An attacker capable of submitting encrypted messages and measuring decryption response times can exploit this timing side channel to reconstruct the private key. Successful exploitation results in information disclosure, allowing the attacker to decrypt sensitive traffic and compromise all data protected by the key.
Statement
Red Hat has evaluated this vulnerability as having a Moderate severity because successful exploitation demands high attack complexity, requiring precise timing analysis across numerous decryption operations under conditions where network jitter is minimized. The vulnerability is confined to the pure-Erlang software fallback routines, which are only invoked when native cryptographic acceleration via OpenSSL is unavailable. Standard enterprise environments generally rely on native crypto NIFs, significantly limiting real-world exposure.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Access Control
Technical Impact: Read Application Data; Bypass Protection Mechanism
In security-relevant contexts, even small variations in timing can be exploited by attackers to indirectly infer certain details about the product's internal operations. For example, in some cryptographic algorithms, attackers can use timing differences to infer certain properties about a private key, making the key easier to guess. Timing discrepancies effectively form a timing side channel.
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