Description
In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the high-level OpenPGP certificate API accepted a third-party certification or trust delegation from any component key of the issuing certificate, without requiring that component to have been granted the authority to certify. OpenPGPCertificate.getCertificationBy() and getDelegationBy() resolve a third-party signature by matching its issuer key identifier against every key of the third-party certificate, then verify the issuing component's binding chain and the signature itself; nothing checked that the issuing component carried the RFC 9580 sec. 5.2.3.29 certification key flag (CERTIFY_OTHER) when the signature was created. A subkey bound only with SIGN_DATA - the online signing subkey of exactly the offline-primary arrangement those key flags exist to express - could therefore issue a positive User ID certification over an attacker-controlled identity, or a full-trust depth-one direct-key delegation of introducer trust, and the API returned it as a valid signature chain attributed to the third-party certificate. An application treating getCertificationBy(...).isValid() or getDelegationBy(...) as an identity or trusted-introducer decision would attribute the attacker's assertion to the offline primary key. The same held for a legacy RSA subkey bound only for encryption, whose algorithm is nonetheless able to sign. This does not forge the primary key's signature or recover any private key; it promotes an already-compromised restricted subkey to the primary key's identity-issuing authority, defeating the containment the key-flag separation provides. A third-party certification or delegation is now attributed to the issuing certificate only when the component key that made it is the primary key, or is a subkey holding CERTIFY_OTHER when the signature was created, so certification-capable subkeys continue to be accepted; primary keys are accepted whatever their key flags say, since a primary key is certification-capable by construction and certificates carrying no key flags subpacket at all are common. Third-party revocations are deliberately outside the rule, since declining to honour one would keep trust alive rather than withdraw it.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legion of the Bouncy Castle | BC-JAVA | 1.81 – < 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.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | bouncycastle | 1.86-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| 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 | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | bouncycastle | No fix yet | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | gradle-8 | 8.14.6-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | gradle-9 | 9.8.2-r3 | — |
Advisories 5
- WID-SEC-2026-3726 Bouncy Castle für Java: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 11, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1 Security update for bouncycastle SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Nov 4, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:22169-1 Security update for bouncycastle SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Nov 1, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1 Security update for bouncycastle SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Oct 21, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:12090-1 bouncycastle-1.86-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Oct 10, 2026