Unbounded HSS public key level count allows huge array allocation during signature verification
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. Impact type from CWE-789.
Summary
Memory allocation with excessive size value in the HSS/LMS signature code (HssPublicKeyParameters, HssSignature) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker who can supply both an HSS public key and a signature to cause a denial of service through memory exhaustion via a public key encoding with an excessive level count, because the level count L read when parsing an HSS public key was not checked against the RFC 8554 maximum of 8, and signature parsing then allocated an array of L - 1 entries before reading any further signature data. A single verification can commit up to about 17 GB of memory or fail with an OutOfMemoryException.
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-csharp | before 2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Patch available | CNA |
- bc-csharp VendorLegion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. Affected before 2.7.0 Fixed in 2.7.0 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:bouncycastle:bc-csharp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 2.7.0 | Vulnerable | Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. |
- cpe:2.3:a:bouncycastle:bc-csharp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 2.7.0 Vulnerable ·Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.
Remediation
- Fix · CNA bc-csharp (Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.) Fixed in 2.7.0
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Release ·
Legion of the Bouncy Castle bc-csharp 2.7.0
21 records Highest priority Priority MEDIUM 8 MEDIUM, 13 LOW
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2026-65844 MTI/A0 DHAgreement does not validate the peer's ephemeral valuePriority MEDIUM 47
- TI-2026-66017 Unbounded ASN.1 nesting depth causes process-terminating stack overflowPriority MEDIUM 44
- TI-2026-65849 Unbounded allocation from OpenPGP signature and user attribute subpacket lengthsPriority MEDIUM 44
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-103603
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-gpr4-c479-xrw4
- 2026-10-28 CVSS score added · NVD
References
More Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. Bc-csharp vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-65844 MTI/A0 DHAgreement does not validate the peer's ephemeral value CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2026-66017 Unbounded ASN.1 nesting depth causes process-terminating stack overflow CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-65849 Unbounded allocation from OpenPGP signature and user attribute subpacket lengths CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-65843 Unbounded CMP/CRMF password-based MAC iteration count allows CPU exhaustion CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-65841 DTLS handshake reassembler allocates buffer from unchecked 24-bit length CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-65846 Attribute certificate path validation does not verify the attribute certificate's signature CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
Sources
- CVE-2026-103603 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-103603 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-gpr4-c479-xrw4 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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