CVE-2026-71892

bouncycastle: In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the opt-in key-size validation on CMS key-transport recipients, org.bouncycast...

CVE-2026-71892 is fixed in bouncycastle on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71892, released October 3, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

Routine
CVSS
n/a
No vendor severity
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0017
6th percentile

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the opt-in key-size validation on CMS key-transport recipients, org.bouncycastle.cms.jcajce.JceKeyTransRecipient.setKeySizeValidation(true), never ran for a message using RFC 9709 content-encryption key derivation (id-alg-cek-hkdf-sha256). The branch that should have selected the actual content-encryption algorithm carried in the key derivation AlgorithmIdentifier's parameters compared the encrypted-key byte array against the id-alg-cek-hkdf-sha256 object identifier, a comparison between a byte array and an ASN1ObjectIdentifier that is false for every possible input, so the check fell through to a key-size lookup on the outer wrapper OID. That OID identifies a key-derivation construction rather than a cipher and has no registered key size, so the size comparison was skipped entirely. A key-transport EnvelopedData or AuthEnvelopedData whose transported, HKDF-derived content-encryption key did not match the key size of the advertised content-encryption algorithm was therefore accepted even with validation explicitly enabled, silently defeating the only mechanism the API offers for enforcing recovered key size. The recipient now dispatches on the content-encryption AlgorithmIdentifier's algorithm OID, so validation checks the recovered key against the inner content-encryption algorithm. Messages with a matching key size, non-HKDF messages, and recipients that do not enable validation are unaffected. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle for Java FIPS (BC-FJA) before bcpkix-fips 2.0.13 (2.0.X series) and 2.1.13 (2.1.X series).

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
bouncycastle · Debian 14 1.86-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71892 Oct 3, 2026
bouncycastle · opensuse-leap 16.0 1.86-160000.1.1 OPENSUSE-SU-2026:22169-1 Nov 7, 2026
bouncycastle · sles 15.6 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1 Nov 7, 2026
bouncycastle · sles 15.7 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1 Nov 7, 2026
bouncycastle · sles 16.0 1.86-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1 Nov 7, 2026

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