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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.9

CVE-2023-5981 json

Gnutls: timing side-channel in the rsa-psk authentication

published 2023-11-28 2 y ago modified 2026-11-05 4 d ago also EUVD-2023-58248 , JLSEC-2026-524

cvss
5.9
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.3%
EPSS 1.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 69%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A vulnerability was found that the response times to malformed ciphertexts in RSA-PSK ClientKeyExchange differ from response times of ciphertexts with correct PKCS#1 v1.5 padding.

Patch / fix

  • julia GnuTLS_jll 3.8.3+0
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 0:3.6.16-8.el8_9
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support 0:3.6.16-5.el8_6.2
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support 0:3.6.16-7.el8_8.1
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 0:3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support 0:3.7.6-21.el9_2.1
  • Red Hat RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9 v4.15.0-6, v4.15.0-10, v4.15.0-13, v4.15.0-15, v4.15.0-19, v4.15.0-21, v4.15.0-22, v4.15.0-26, v4.15.0-37, v4.15.0-39, v4.15.0-54, v4.15.0-57, v4.15.0-58, v4.15.0-68, v4.15.0-79, v4.15.0-81, v4.15.0-103, v4.15.0-158
  • Red Hat RHOL-5.8-RHEL-9 v0.1.0-224, v0.1.0-525, v0.4.0-247, v0.28.1-56, v1.0.0-479, v1.1.0-227, v2.9.6-14, v5.8.1-470, v5.8.6-2, v5.8.6-5, v5.8.6-7, v5.8.6-10, v5.8.6-11, v5.8.6-19, v5.8.6-22, v5.8.6-24, v6.8.1-407
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • gnutls28 Debian 12 3.7.9-2+deb12u1
  • gnutls28 Debian 14, Debian 13 3.8.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-5981

  • gnutls28 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.6.13-2ubuntu1.9
  • gnutls28 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 3.7.3-4ubuntu1.3
  • gnutls28 Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 3.5.18-1ubuntu1.6+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-5981

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

  • gnutls RHEL 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-c++ RHEL 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-dane RHEL 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-utils RHEL 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls RHEL 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9
  • gnutls-c++ RHEL 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9
  • gnutls-dane RHEL 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9
  • gnutls-utils RHEL 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:0319RHSA-2024:0533RHSA-2024:0451RHSA-2024:0155RHSA-2024:0399

  • gnutls SLE Micro 5.3 3.7.3-150400.1.3.1
  • gnutls SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +6 more 3.6.7-150200.14.31.1
  • gnutls SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +7 more 3.6.7-150200.14.28.1
  • gnutls SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP4, SLE Micro 5.5 +4 more 3.7.3-150400.4.38.1
  • gnutls SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS 3.6.7-150000.6.50.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1179-1SUSE-SU-2024:0860-1SUSE-SU-2023:4986-1SUSE-SU-2023:4983-1SUSE-SU-2023:4952-1

  • gnutls openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.8.2-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13444-1

  • gnutls AlmaLinux 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9.1
  • gnutls-c++ AlmaLinux 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9.1
  • gnutls-dane AlmaLinux 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9.1
  • gnutls-utils AlmaLinux 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9.1
  • gnutls AlmaLinux 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-c++ AlmaLinux 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-dane AlmaLinux 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
  • gnutls-utils AlmaLinux 9 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3

almalinux advisories ALSA-2024:0627ALSA-2024:0533ALSA-2024:0155

  • gnutls Rocky Linux 8 3.6.16-8.el8_9

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2024:0155

  • gnutls Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +4 more 3.8.3-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-5981

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • gnutls CBL-Mariner 2.0 3.7.11-1

azure linux advisories AZL-32048

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2023-5981 updated cvss 5.9

gnutls: timing side-channel in the RSA-PSK authentication

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 gnutls, gnutls-guile, gnutls-utils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 gnutls, gnutls-c++, gnutls-dane, gnutls-utils
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) gnutls-c++ 3.6.16-8.el8_9, gnutls-dane 3.6.16-8.el8_9, gnutls-utils 3.6.16-8.el8_9
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0155
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) gnutls-c++ 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3, gnutls-dane 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3, gnutls-utils 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0533
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.8.6) gnutls-c++ 3.6.16-5.el8_6.2, gnutls-dane 3.6.16-5.el8_6.2, gnutls-utils 3.6.16-5.el8_6.2
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0319
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.8.8) gnutls-c++ 3.6.16-7.el8_8.1, gnutls-dane 3.6.16-7.el8_8.1, gnutls-utils 3.6.16-7.el8_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0399
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.2) gnutls-c++ 3.7.6-21.el9_2.1, gnutls-dane 3.7.6-21.el9_2.1, gnutls-utils 3.7.6-21.el9_2.1
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0451
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) gnutls 3.6.16-8.el8_9
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0155
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) gnutls 3.7.6-23.el9_3.3
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0533
show 5 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.6) gnutls 3.6.16-5.el8_6.2
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0319
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) gnutls 3.6.16-7.el8_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0399
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.9.2) gnutls 3.7.6-21.el9_2.1
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:0451
  • Red Hat RHODF 4.15 for RHEL 9 odf4/cephcsi-rhel9 v4.15.0-37, odf4/odf-cli-rhel9 v4.15.0-22, odf4/mcg-core-rhel9 v4.15.0-68, odf4/odf-console-rhel9 v4.15.0-57, odf4/mcg-rhel9-operator v4.15.0-39, odf4/ocs-rhel9-operator v4.15.0-79, +20 more
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:1383
  • Red Hat RHOL 5.8 for RHEL 9 openshift-logging/fluentd-rhel9 v5.8.6-5, openshift-logging/vector-rhel9 v0.28.1-56, openshift-logging/eventrouter-rhel9 v0.4.0-247, openshift-logging/logging-loki-rhel9 v2.9.6-14, openshift-logging/loki-rhel9-operator v5.8.6-10, openshift-logging/loki-operator-bundle v5.8.6-24, +11 more
    fixed: vendor fix “To address the issue found upgrade to GnuTLS 3.8.2 or later versions.” RHSA-2024:2094

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

cisa ICSA-23-348-10 updated cvss 5.9

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6AG1518-4AX00-4AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5
    affected: fixed in V3.1.5, mitigation support.industry.siemens.com

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 69% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
julia GnuTLS_jll
<3.8.3+0
3.8.3+0

Affected products

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support
  • Red Hat RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9
  • Red Hat RHOL-5.8-RHEL-9
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-208 Observable Timing Discrepancy
  • CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.