CVE-2021-1924
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 · uneditedInformation disclosure through timing and power side-channels during mod exponentiation for RSA-CRT in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer Electronics Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon IoT, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables, Snapdragon Wired Infrastructure and Networking
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 and power side-channel vulnerability in RSA-CRT mod exponentiation implementation allows physically proximate attackers to potentially recover private RSA keys through analysis of power consumption patterns or execution timing during cryptographic operations.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 the chipset modelDetermine the exact Qualcomm APQ chipset model in your device by checking hardware specifications, device schematics, or system information (e.g., /proc/cpuinfo on Linux, or boot logs).Affected if The chipset is one of: Apq8009, Apq8009w, Apq8016, Apq8017, Apq8037, Apq8052, Apq8056, or Apq8062
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Confirm RSA-CRT usageReview your application or cryptographic library documentation to determine if RSA operations use CRT (Chinese Remainder Theorem) optimization, or examine the cryptographic implementation code for CRT-specific mod exponentiation functions.Affected if RSA-CRT implementation is in use for private key operations
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Check for cryptographic key handlingAudit where RSA private keys are stored or processed on the device, particularly in secure boot, TPM, or secure element components that rely on the affected chipset.Affected if RSA private keys are handled by the vulnerable chipset firmware without hardware-assisted constant-time operations
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Assess physical access exposureEvaluate whether the device is deployed in scenarios where physically proximate attackers could perform power analysis or timing measurements during RSA operations (e.g., smart meters, IoT devices, secure terminals).Affected if Device is accessible to physical attackers who could measure power consumption or timing during cryptographic operations
If your device uses any of the affected Qualcomm APQ chipset variants and performs RSA-CRT private key operations, you are potentially affected by this side-channel vulnerability.
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 dataApply vendor-provided firmware/SDK patches from Qualcomm; implement hardware security modules or trusted execution environments that provide constant-time cryptographic operations resistant to side-channel analysis.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,776.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1924 — 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-2021-1924 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data