CVE-2026-71889
Published:October 03, 2026
Updated:October 10, 2026
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 Bouncy Castle for Java FIPS (BC-FJA) before bcpkix-fips 1.0.13 (1.0.X series), 2.0.13 (2.0.X series) and 2.1.13 (2.1.X series).
Affected Packages
https://github.com/bcgit/bc-lts-java.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=r2rv73dot0 <r2rv73dot13Fix Suggestion:
Update to version r2rv73dot13https://github.com/bcgit/bc-java.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=r1rv49 <r1rv86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version r1rv86org.bouncycastle:bcprov-debug-jdk18on (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.71 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-debug-jdk18on (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.74 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-fips (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=2.1.8 <2.1.13Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 2.1.13org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-jdk18on (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.74 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcprov-debug-jdk15to18 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.64 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-jdk15to18 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.74 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk18on (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.71 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15to18 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.63 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-debug-jdk15to18 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.74 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-lts8on (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=2.73.0 <2.73.13Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 2.73.13org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk14 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.43 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcprov-debug-jdk14 (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.55 <1.86Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.86org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-fips (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=1.0.4 <1.0.13Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.0.13org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-fips (JAVA):
Affected version(s) >=2.0.7 <2.0.13Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 2.0.13Related Resources (10)
Do you need more information?
Contact UsCVSS v4
Base Score:
8.7
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
NONE
Vulnerable System Integrity
HIGH
Vulnerable System Availability
NONE
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
NONE
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
7.5
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Weakness Type (CWE)
Improper Certificate Validation
EPSS
Base Score:
0.17