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bouncycastle — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the streaming CMS AuthenticatedData parser accepted a message whose digestAlgorithm and authAttrs fields disagreed about whether authenticated attributes were present. RFC 5652 sec. 9.1 pairs the two, requiring that authAttrs be present whenever digestAlgorithm is, and sec. 9.2 makes the MAC cover the DER encoding of authAttrs when they are present and the eContent OCTET STRING directly when they are not. CMSAuthenticatedDataParser has to choose between those two in its constructor, before it can reach authAttrs, which comes later in the SEQUENCE, so it chose on digestAlgorithm alone: for a message with digestAlgorithm absent but authAttrs present it verified the content MAC and then returned the attributes through getAuthAttrs() as though they had been authenticated, when the MAC had never covered them. An attacker able to modify a message in transit could insert an authenticated attribute, such as an RFC 2634 ESSSecurityLabel, into an otherwise valid message while holding neither the key-encryption key nor the content-MAC key, and an application taking an authorization, routing or labelling decision from those attributes would act on attacker-chosen values. The content itself remained MAC-bound. asn1.cms.AuthenticatedData now rejects the mismatched pairing when parsing and CMSAuthenticatedDataParser cross-checks the two fields once authAttrs is read. This is a variant of CVE-2026-59642, which bound the content to the MAC for messages t

Products
bouncycastle
Affected versions
1.72-2, 1.77-1, 1.80-1, 1.80-2, 1.80-3, 1.86-1
Fixed versions
1.86-1
CVEs
CVE-2026-71888
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
28 Oct 2026, 03:41 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888

core-osv · Original source

Published 3 Oct 2026, 09:17 UTC

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the streaming CMS AuthenticatedData parser accepted a message whose digestAlgorithm and authAttrs fields disagreed about whether authenticated attributes were present. RFC 5652 sec. 9.1 pairs the two, requiring that authAttrs be present whenever digestAlgorithm is, and sec. 9.2 makes the MAC cover the DER encoding of authAttrs when they are present and the eContent OCTET STRING directly when they are not. CMSAuthenticatedDataParser has to choose between those two in its constructor, before it can reach authAttrs, which comes later in the SEQUENCE, so it chose on digestAlgorithm alone: for a message with digestAlgorithm absent but authAttrs present it verified the content MAC and then returned the attributes through getAuthAttrs() as though they had been authenticated, when the MAC had never covered them. An attacker able to modify a message in transit could insert an authenticated attribute, such as an RFC 2634 ESSSecurityLabel, into an otherwise valid message while holding neither the key-encryption key nor the content-MAC key, and an application taking an authorization, routing or labelling decision from those attributes would act on attacker-chosen values. The content itself remained MAC-bound. asn1.cms.AuthenticatedData now rejects the mismatched pairing when parsing and CMSAuthenticatedDataParser cross-checks the two fields once authAttrs is read. This is a variant of CVE-2026-59642, which bound the content to the MAC for messages t

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: Not specified

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: Not specified

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: 1.86-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "68b294d2b573d7b8b83e27bddd4b52ec2374d13a331b45ce60e1a6f74e3da1e6",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888",
    "summary": "In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the streaming CMS AuthenticatedData parser accepted a message whose digestAlgorithm and authAttrs fields disagreed about whether authenticated attributes were present. RFC 5652 sec. 9.1 pairs the two, requiring that authAttrs be present whenever digestAlgorithm is, and sec. 9.2 makes the MAC cover the DER encoding of authAttrs when they are present and the eContent OCTET STRING directly when they are not. CMSAuthenticatedDataParser has to choose between those two in its constructor, before it can reach authAttrs, which comes later in the SEQUENCE, so it chose on digestAlgorithm alone: for a message with digestAlgorithm absent but authAttrs present it verified the content MAC and then returned the attributes through getAuthAttrs() as though they had been authenticated, when the MAC had never covered them. An attacker able to modify a message in transit could insert an authenticated attribute, such as an RFC 2634 ESSSecurityLabel, into an otherwise valid message while holding neither the key-encryption key nor the content-MAC key, and an application taking an authorization, routing or labelling decision from those attributes would act on attacker-chosen values. The content itself remained MAC-bound. asn1.cms.AuthenticatedData now rejects the mismatched pairing when parsing and CMSAuthenticatedDataParser cross-checks the two fields once authAttrs is read. This is a variant of CVE-2026-59642, which bound the content to the MAC for messages t",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bouncycastle",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [],
        "affected_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.72-2",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.77-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.80-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.80-2",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.80-3",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.86-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bouncycastle",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [],
        "affected_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.80-3",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/versions"
          },
          {
            "value": "1.86-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/versions"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bouncycastle",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.86-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.80-3",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/versions"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/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"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bouncycastle",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bouncycastle?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "versions": [
            "1.72-2",
            "1.77-1",
            "1.80-1",
            "1.80-2",
            "1.80-3",
            "1.86-1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bouncycastle",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bouncycastle?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "versions": [
            "1.80-3",
            "1.86-1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1.86-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bouncycastle",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bouncycastle?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "versions": [
            "1.80-3"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71888.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-07T09:47:36.211151205Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2026-71888"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-71888"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-71888",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 94671,
  "published_at": "2026-10-03T09:17:05.25+00:00"
}