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High · 8.2 CVE-2024-14041 EUVD-2024-55702GHSA-6wh4-p7q8-98wf

ML-KEM (Kyber) decapsulation leaks private key information through non-constant-time division in message decoding and ciphertext compression (KyberSlash)

Published Jul 28, 2026 · Updated Aug 9, 2026 · Assigned by bcorg

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

VendorProductAffectedFixed
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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 bouncycastle 1.80-1 —
Debian 13 bouncycastle 1.80-1 —
Debian 12 bouncycastle No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
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)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —

Advisories 1

References