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Critical · 9.2 CVE-2026-71885 EUVD-2026-92003GHSA-jch3-5j66-88vx

MLS X.509 credential not bound to the LeafNode signature key

Published Oct 3, 2026 · Updated Oct 5, 2026 · Assigned by bcorg

Description

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the Messaging Layer Security (MLS, RFC 9420) implementation did not bind an X.509 credential to a LeafNode's signature_key. LeafNode.verify() checked a leaf's signature against the signature_key carried in the leaf itself, while the credential's X.509 certificate chain was stored but never parsed or validated, so the end-entity certificate's public key was never required to match signature_key as RFC 9420 sec. 5.3 requires. A party could therefore present another party's certificate as its credential while signing the leaf, and the enclosing KeyPackage, with an unrelated key, and be accepted under that other party's identity through KeyPackage.verify() and the Group leaf-validation path. In a deployment that admits external commits without an independent credential-admission check, an unauthenticated attacker could be admitted under a victim's X.509 identity, evict the victim (resynchronization compares whole credentials rather than signing keys), derive the current epoch, decrypt subsequent group messages, and send messages accepted as the victim. TreeKEM.LeafNode now requires the end-entity certificate's subject public key, in the cipher suite's signature encoding, to equal signature_key for an X.509 credential and rejects the leaf otherwise, including an empty chain or a certificate whose key type does not match the cipher suite; certificate-chain and identity validation to a trust anchor remain the application's responsibility per RFC 9420 sec. 5.3.1. Deployments using only basic credentials are unaffected.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Legion of the Bouncy Castle BC-JAVA < 1.86 1.86

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 1.86-1 —
Debian 13 bouncycastle No fix yet —
Debian 12 bouncycastle No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
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 —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP6 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP6 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1
SLE HPC 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLE HPC 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed bouncycastle 1.86-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12090-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:22169-1

Advisories 5

References