CVE-2016-6489

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 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-6489 is rated Moderate Risk (61.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.44%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-6489

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-07 2.69% 3.44% +0.74%
2 2026-05-14 3.42% 2.69% -0.72%
3 2026-05-13 — 3.42% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-6489

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-6489

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-6489

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-6489 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (nettle), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-6489
gentoo normal CVE-2016-6489: 1 GLSA(s) (201706-21), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/nettle); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-6489
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-6489
suse medium CVE-2016-6489 severity moderate: SUSE including 305 source package names (2.78:libhogweed2-2.7.1-12.1, 2.78:libnettle4-2.7.1-12.1, …), 394 product×package rows across 61 product lines (Container caasp/v4/dnsmasq-nanny, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (61 product lines)): Fixed 237, Known Affected 157. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-6489/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-6489 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (nettle), 7 status rows across 7 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): released 4, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6489

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-6489

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
nettle_project nettle < 3.3 cpe:2.3:a:nettle_project:nettle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-6489

cvelogic Threat Intelligence