SCRAM (Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism) is part of the family of Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL, RFC 4422) authentication mechanisms. Prior to version 3.2, a timing attack vulnerability exists in the SCRAM Java implementation. The issue arises because Arrays.equals was used to compare secret values such as client proofs and server signatures. Since Arrays.equals performs a short-circuit comparison, the execution time varies depending on how many leading bytes match. This behavior could allow an attacker to perform a timing side-channel attack and potentially infer sensitive authentication material. All users relying on SCRAM authentication are impacted. This vulnerability has been patched in version 3.1 by replacing Arrays.equals with MessageDigest.isEqual, which ensures constant-time comparison.
https://github.com/ongres/scram/security/advisories/GHSA-3wfh-36rx-9537
https://github.com/ongres/scram/commit/e0b0cf99f05406a0d26682c72fcb5728e95124b3
Published: 2025-09-22
Updated: 2026-01-23
Base Score: 5.4
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N
Severity: Medium
Base Score: 6.8
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
Severity: Medium
Base Score: 8.7
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: High
EPSS: 0.0012