Security Resilience

CVE-2024-37880

Pq-Crystals Kyber ≤ 2024-06-03

Public PoC
Published
10 June 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0070 52th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-37880 is a high-severity Observable Discrepancy (CWE-203) vulnerability in Pq-Crystals Kyber. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked in the top 48% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-6 (Authentication Feedback) and SI-11 (Error Handling) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Kyber reference implementation before 9b8d306, when compiled by LLVM Clang through 18.x with some common optimization options, has a timing side channel that allows attackers to recover an ML-KEM 512 secret key in minutes. This occurs because poly_frommsg in…

more

poly.c does not prevent Clang from emitting a vulnerable secret-dependent branch.

CWE(s)
CWE-203

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011.001 Exfiltration Over Bluetooth Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over Bluetooth rather than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-24506Shared CWE-203
CVE-2023-46739Shared CWE-203
CVE-2024-38465Shared CWE-203
CVE-2026-44263Shared CWE-203
CVE-2026-87623Shared CWE-203
CVE-2025-56423Shared CWE-203
CVE-2026-3579Shared CWE-203
CVE-2024-50102Shared CWE-203
CVE-2023-50781Shared CWE-203
CVE-2023-38327Shared CWE-203

Affected Assets

pq-crystals
kyber
≤ 2024-06-03

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

IA-6 Authentication Feedback good match

Obscures authentication feedback so that success/failure differences are not observable to attackers.

SI-11 Error Handling good match

Requires error messages to avoid revealing exploitable details, directly stopping observable response discrepancies.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent observable response discrepancies via consistent error handling and timing.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.6.8 Information security event reporting partial match
removes

References