Description
In Bouncy Castle for Java from 1.73 to before 1.78, three ML-KEM (CRYSTALS-Kyber) routines divided secret-derived polynomial coefficients by the modulus q: Poly.toMsg, which decodes the decrypted message, and the ciphertext compression routines Poly.compressPoly and PolyVec.compressPolyVec. An attacker able to measure the timing of a large number of decapsulations performed with the same long-term private key can recover that key. These are the KyberSlash1 (Poly.toMsg) and KyberSlash2 (ciphertext compression) divisions. Compression performed during encapsulation operates on values that become the public ciphertext and is not affected.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion of the Bouncy Castle | BC-JAVA | 1.73 – < 1.78 | 1.78 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | bouncycastle | 1.80-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | bouncycastle | 1.80-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-2550 Bouncy Castle: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Offenlegung von Informationen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Jul 27, 2026