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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.1 CVE-2026-71891 EUVD-2026-92005GHSA-gggh-4cvh-v637

BLS12-381 key validation accepts a public key built on a foreign curve

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

Description

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, BLS12_381BasicScheme.keyValidate, and so BLSPublicKeyParameters and every BasicScheme, MessageAugmentation and ProofOfPossession verify and aggregateVerify that gate on it, accepted a public key built on a foreign ECCurve that merely shares BLS12-381's field characteristic. The prime-order subgroup check trusts a point's own curve to name its cofactor, since ECPoint.satisfiesOrder returns true outright when the curve's cofactor is one, so a point on a curve with a different equation and a cofactor forged to one passed keyValidate despite not being a G1 point at all. In BC's pairing implementation such a point contributes the identity in the target group, so an aggregate signature verified against a set of public keys including it is accepted even though it contains no signature for that key and message pair, admitting a phantom signer. keyValidate now first confirms that the point's curve carries exactly the canonical G1 field, equation, order and cofactor before any subgroup check. The issue is reachable only where an application constructs an ECPoint on an explicit, non-canonical curve and accepts it as an authority-bearing key; the standard 48-byte compressed-point decoder always supplies the canonical curve and was never affected.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Legion of the Bouncy Castle BC-JAVA 1.85 – < 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

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling gradle-8 8.14.6-r5 —
Wolfi rolling gradle-9 9.8.2-r3 —

Advisories 6

References