Native entropy source retries the CPU entropy instructions without limit
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-835.
Summary
In Bouncy Castle for Java FIPS (BC-FJA) before bc-fips 2.1.3, the native entropy source used on Intel platforms retried the CPU entropy instructions without any bound. RDSEED and RDRAND report failure through their carry flag, and the JNI seeding routine spun re-issuing the instruction for as long as that flag stayed clear, so a persistent failure of the on-chip entropy source - whether from a hardware fault, from the underlying DRBG being exhausted by contention across many cores, or from a hypervisor that does not provide the instruction - left the calling thread looping indefinitely inside the JNI call, where it could be neither interrupted nor timed out. Any operation drawing from the native entropy source could therefore hang, denying service to the application. The retry loops are now bounded (200 attempts for RDSEED and 20 for RDRAND, twice the baselines given in Intel's Digital Random Number Generator software implementation guide), pausing between attempts and, on exhaustion, clearing any partially written buffer and throwing rather than continuing to spin. The clear is performed by an un-elidable memzero, which uses a volatile pointer and an assembly memory barrier so that a compiler cannot optimise the erase away as a dead store. Bouncy Castle for Java (bcprov) is not affected, as it has no native entropy source; the 1.0.X and 2.0.X FIPS series are not affected.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. | BC-FJA | 2.1.0 to before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | org.bouncycastle:bc-fips (Maven) | 2.1.0 to before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc |
- BC-FJA VendorLegion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. Affected 2.1.0 to before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available CNA
- org.bouncycastle:bc-fips (Maven) Vendor— Affected 2.1.0 to before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc
Remediation
- Fix · CNA BC-FJA (Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.) Fixed in 2.1.3
- Fix · GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc org.bouncycastle:bc-fips (Maven) Fixed in 2.1.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-8798
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc
References
More Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. vulnerabilities
- TI-2018-15967 Legion of the Bouncy Castle Legion of the Bouncy Castle Java Cryptography APIs 1.58 up to… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2017-09736 BouncyCastle JCE TLS Bleichenbacher/ROBOT CVSS 3.0HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-42545 MTI/A0 DH agreement exponentiates unvalidated peer value CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-42533 JSSE hostname verifier CN-fallback enabled by default despite documented opt-in CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-41816 Stapled OCSP response accepted without binding to the checked certificate CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-07701 Name Constraints bypass via trailing dot in rfc822Name and URI CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
Sources
- CVE-2026-8798 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-8798 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences