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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2016-6489 json

The RSA and DSA decryption code in Nettle makes it easier for attackers to discover private keys via a cache side channel attack.

published 2017-04-14 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-7411

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.0%
EPSS 5.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 92%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The RSA and DSA decryption code in Nettle makes it easier for attackers to discover private keys via a cache side channel attack.

Patch / fix

  • nettle_project nettle 3.3
  • nettle Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-6489

  • nettle Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.7.1-1ubuntu0.2
  • nettle Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 3.2-1ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-6489

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • nettle RHEL 7 2.7.1-8.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2582

  • libnettle SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +2 more 2.7.1-12.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1481-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-6489 updated cvss 7.4

nettle: RSA/DSA code is vulnerable to cache-timing related attacks

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) nettle 2.7.1-8.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2582

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

5.05% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 92% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.