CVE-2019-13629
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMatrixSSL 4.2.1 and earlier contains a timing side channel in ECDSA signature generation. This allows a local or a remote attacker, able to measure the duration of hundreds to thousands of signing operations, to compute the private key used. The issue occurs because crypto/pubkey/ecc_math.c scalar multiplication leaks the bit length of the scalar.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceTiming side channel in MatrixSSL's ECDSA signature generation where the scalar multiplication function in crypto/pubkey/ecc_math.c leaks the bit length of the private key through variable timing. Attackers can measure hundreds to thousands of signing operations and use statistical analysis to recover the private key.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 4.2.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify MatrixSSL presenceSearch for MatrixSSL library files or inspect application dependencies for matrixssl references. Common file patterns: libmatrixssl.so, matrixssl.h, or package references in build systems.Affected if MatrixSSL is present in the environment
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Check MatrixSSL versionRun 'grep -i matrixssl' on library files, check version strings in binaries, or inspect package manager output for the installed version.Affected if The version is 4.2.1 or earlier
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Verify ECDSA key usageReview application code or configuration for ECDSA key loading and signing operations. Check for calls to ECDSA sign functions or ECC key initialization.Affected if The application uses ECDSA private keys for signing operations
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Confirm signing operations occur at runtimeMonitor application execution or review logs for ECDSA signature generation activity. This vulnerability is triggered during the signing process.Affected if The application performs ECDSA signing operations in production or testing
The environment is affected if MatrixSSL version 4.2.1 or earlier is deployed and the application performs ECDSA signing operations using the vulnerable scalar multiplication routine.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to a patched version of MatrixSSL that implements constant-time scalar multiplication in the ECC math routines, eliminating timing variations during ECDSA signing.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-13629 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-13629 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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