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TI-2026-07735 Aliases CVE-2026-8798GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc

Native entropy source retries the CPU entropy instructions without limit

Priority MEDIUM 44CWE-835Published · Updated

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

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00428 37th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed BC-FJA (Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.): 2.1.3org.bouncycastle:bc-fips (Maven): 2.1.3

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

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.BC-FJA2.1.0 to before 2.1.32.1.3Patch availableCNA
—org.bouncycastle:bc-fips (Maven)2.1.0 to before 2.1.32.1.3Patch availableGHSA-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

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-8798
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-v6w3-qrh8-qccc

References

  • 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
See all 109 →

Sources