Cryptographic compromise via faulted seeds and pointers
Published Mar 19, 2026 · Updated Mar 19, 2026
Protection mechanism failure in wolfCrypt 5.8.2 through 5.8.4 allows physically proximate attackers to compromise keys via transient faults. ML-DSA signing fails to verify the integrity of y and yt pointers, while ML-KEM reuses private-seed storage without validating the sigma copy during Keccak-based expansion. Physical access to an ARM Cortex-M device and a build with ML-KEM or ML-DSA are required; induced faults can expose key material or alter cryptographic results.
Summary
What happened
Protection mechanism failure in wolfCrypt 5.8.2 through 5.8.4 allows physically proximate attackers to compromise keys via transient faults. ML-DSA signing fails to verify the integrity of y and yt pointers, while ML-KEM reuses private-seed storage without validating the sigma copy during Keccak-based expansion. Physical access to an ARM Cortex-M device and a build with ML-KEM or ML-DSA are required; induced faults can expose key material or alter cryptographic results.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-3503
- Published
- Mar 19, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 19, 2026
- Vendor
- wolfSSL
- Product
- wolfCrypt
- Classifications
- CWE-335
- Attack vector
- physical
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 19, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 19, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.8.2 <5.9.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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