Upstream information

CVE-2026-71885 at MITRE

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.

Other Security Trackers

SUSE information

Overall state of this security issue: Pending

This issue is currently rated as having important severity.

CVSS v3 Scores
CVSS detail SUSE
Base Score 7.7
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity High
Privileges Required None
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact High
Integrity Impact High
Availability Impact Low
CVSSv3 Version 3.1
CVSS v4 Scores
CVSS detail CNA (91579145-5d7b-4cc5-b925-a0262ff19630) SUSE
Base Score 9.2 9.2
Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:Amber CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Attack Vector Network Network
Attack Complexity Low Low
Attack Requirements Present Present
Privileges Required None None
User Interaction None None
Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact High High
Vulnerable System Integrity Impact High High
Vulnerable System Availability Impact Low Low
Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None None
Subsequent System Integrity Impact None None
Subsequent System Availability Impact None None
CVSSv4 Version 4.0 4.0
SUSE Bugzilla entry: 1284165 [IN_PROGRESS]

No SUSE Security Announcements cross referenced.


Status of this issue by product and package

Please note that this evaluation state might be work in progress, incomplete or outdated. Also information for service packs in the LTSS phase is only included for issues meeting the LTSS criteria. If in doubt, feel free to contact us for clarification. The updates are grouped by state of their lifecycle. SUSE product lifecycles are documented on the lifecycle page.

Product(s) Source package State
Products under general support and receiving all security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 bouncycastle Affected
openSUSE Leap 16.0 bouncycastle Affected
Products under Long Term Service Pack support and receiving important and critical security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP5 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 bouncycastle Affected
Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore.
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.1 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.2 bouncycastle Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.3 bouncycastle Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.3 bouncycastle Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.4 bouncycastle Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.5 bouncycastle Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.6 bouncycastle Affected
Products at an unknown state of their lifecycle.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for NVIDIA 16.1 bouncycastle Affected
Container Status
containers/apache-pulsar:3.3 bouncycastleAffected


SUSE Timeline for this CVE

CVE page created: Mon Oct 5 13:57:35 2026
CVE page last modified: Tue Oct 6 19:43:23 2026