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CVE Record

CVE-2021-29415: The elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) hardware accelerator, part of the ARM® TrustZone® CryptoCell 310, con...

The elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) hardware accelerator, part of the ARM® TrustZone® CryptoCell 310, contained in the NordicSemiconductor nRF52840 through 2021-03-29 has a non-constant time ECDSA implemenation. This allows an adversary to recover the private ECC key used during an ECDSA operation.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This CVE describes a side-channel weakness in ECDSA signing on Nordic nRF52840 devices using the ARM TrustZone CryptoCell 310 accelerator. Timing differences during signing could let an attacker recover the private ECC key. The sources do not provide a CVSS score or confirmed active exploitation.

Executive priority

Treat as high priority for products relying on affected device-side ECDSA keys. Business urgency depends on whether private signing keys are valuable, reusable, or exposed to attacker-observable signing activity.

Technical view

The ECC hardware accelerator in ARM TrustZone CryptoCell 310, as contained in Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 through 2021-03-29, used a non-constant-time ECDSA implementation. The stated impact is recovery of the private ECC key used during an ECDSA operation.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most relevant to embedded products using Nordic nRF52840 and the CryptoCell 310 ECC accelerator for ECDSA. The bundle does not identify specific downstream products, firmware versions, or configurations beyond the CVE description.

Exploitation context

CISA KEV status is false in the bundle, and no cited source states active exploitation. The risk is a cryptographic timing side channel during ECDSA operations, not a conventional remote code execution issue.

Researcher notes

The public bundle is sparse: no CVSS, CWE, exploit confirmation, or explicit patch details are included. Analysis should stay anchored to the non-constant-time ECDSA behavior and the named nRF52840/CryptoCell 310 scope.

Mitigation direction

  • Inventory products using Nordic nRF52840 and CryptoCell 310 for ECDSA.
  • Check Nordic, ARM, and product-vendor advisories for firmware guidance.
  • Apply vendor-provided firmware, SDK, or cryptography updates when available.
  • Consider key rotation after remediation if affected keys signed in exposed conditions.
  • Avoid unsupported cryptographic workarounds without vendor validation.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether ECDSA operations use the CryptoCell 310 hardware accelerator.
  • Map deployed firmware or SDK versions against vendor guidance.
  • Review whether affected devices perform signing where attackers can observe timing.
  • Check whether exposed private keys need replacement after remediation.
  • Document compensating controls and unresolved vendor guidance gaps.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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CVE-2021-29415 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
4Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.