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bouncycastle — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, neither copy of PKIXCertPathReviewer - org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce.PKIXCertPathReviewer nor the legacy org.bouncycastle.x509.PKIXCertPathReviewer - applied X.509 name constraints to the end-entity certificate. checkNameConstraints walked the path with a loop bound of index greater than zero, which is the bound the CA-only steps require, but index zero is the target certificate under the standard CertPath ordering, so the permitted and excluded subtree checks of RFC 5280 sec. 6.1.3 (b) and (c) never ran against the leaf's subject DN or its subjectAltName. A chain whose leaf violated a NameConstraints extension imposed by its own issuing CA therefore reported isValidCertPath() true with an empty error list, while CertPathValidator.getInstance("PKIX", "BC"), which shares no code with the reviewer, rejected the identical chain against the identical trust anchor. An application using the reviewer to make the trust decision rather than for diagnostics alongside a real validation accepted a certificate the constrained CA was never authorised to issue. Both copies now check every certificate in the path including the target, waive the sec. 4.2.1.10 self-issued exemption for the final certificate as sec. 6.1.3 requires, and skip the sec. 6.1.4 (g) constraint-accumulation step for the target. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle for Java LTS before 2.73.13, which carries only the org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce copy of the reviewer. It also affects

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-2026-71889
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
28 Oct 2026, 03:41 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889

core-osv · Original source

Published 3 Oct 2026, 09:17 UTC

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, neither copy of PKIXCertPathReviewer - org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce.PKIXCertPathReviewer nor the legacy org.bouncycastle.x509.PKIXCertPathReviewer - applied X.509 name constraints to the end-entity certificate. checkNameConstraints walked the path with a loop bound of index greater than zero, which is the bound the CA-only steps require, but index zero is the target certificate under the standard CertPath ordering, so the permitted and excluded subtree checks of RFC 5280 sec. 6.1.3 (b) and (c) never ran against the leaf's subject DN or its subjectAltName. A chain whose leaf violated a NameConstraints extension imposed by its own issuing CA therefore reported isValidCertPath() true with an empty error list, while CertPathValidator.getInstance("PKIX", "BC"), which shares no code with the reviewer, rejected the identical chain against the identical trust anchor. An application using the reviewer to make the trust decision rather than for diagnostics alongside a real validation accepted a certificate the constrained CA was never authorised to issue. Both copies now check every certificate in the path including the target, waive the sec. 4.2.1.10 self-issued exemption for the final certificate as sec. 6.1.3 requires, and skip the sec. 6.1.4 (g) constraint-accumulation step for the target. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle for Java LTS before 2.73.13, which carries only the org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce copy of the reviewer. It also affects

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: Not specified

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: Not specified

bouncycastle

Fixed versions: 1.86-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "423c22fcd1b7c1767660ec2b40bc6443d6b6439e26fe520b5e79a48f913668c3",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889",
    "summary": "In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, neither copy of PKIXCertPathReviewer - org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce.PKIXCertPathReviewer nor the legacy org.bouncycastle.x509.PKIXCertPathReviewer - applied X.509 name constraints to the end-entity certificate. checkNameConstraints walked the path with a loop bound of index greater than zero, which is the bound the CA-only steps require, but index zero is the target certificate under the standard CertPath ordering, so the permitted and excluded subtree checks of RFC 5280 sec. 6.1.3 (b) and (c) never ran against the leaf's subject DN or its subjectAltName. A chain whose leaf violated a NameConstraints extension imposed by its own issuing CA therefore reported isValidCertPath() true with an empty error list, while CertPathValidator.getInstance(\"PKIX\", \"BC\"), which shares no code with the reviewer, rejected the identical chain against the identical trust anchor. An application using the reviewer to make the trust decision rather than for diagnostics alongside a real validation accepted a certificate the constrained CA was never authorised to issue. Both copies now check every certificate in the path including the target, waive the sec. 4.2.1.10 self-issued exemption for the final certificate as sec. 6.1.3 requires, and skip the sec. 6.1.4 (g) constraint-accumulation step for the target. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle for Java LTS before 2.73.13, which carries only the org.bouncycastle.pkix.jcajce copy of the reviewer. It also affects",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889",
    "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-2026-71889",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71889"
      ],
      "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-2026-71889.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-2026-71889.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-2026-71889.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-07T09:47:34.873090980Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2026-71889"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-71889"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-71889",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 94667,
  "published_at": "2026-10-03T09:17:05.437+00:00"
}