CVE-2026-97873

Year

2026

Published

Oct 3, 2026

Known Affected Devices

CVSS Score

N/A

What is CVE-2026-97873?

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the raw JCA provider's legacy PBES1 (PKCS#5 scheme 1) and PKCS#12 PBE families ran their password-based key derivation with an iteration count taken from untrusted input without bounding it, so a small input could dictate an arbitrary amount of work before anything could be verified. The AlgorithmParameters implementations (PKCS12PBE and its object identifier aliases, and PBKDF1) accepted any count from an encoded PKCS12PBEParams or PBEParameter, narrowing a value beyond the int range with intValue(), and every Cipher, Mac and SecretKeyFactory in these families derived with whatever count it was given, including one decoded by another provider's AlgorithmParameters, as when javax.crypto.EncryptedPrivateKeyInfo.getKeySpec() decrypts a PKCS#12 PBE-protected private key with BC. Both the parameter parse and the derivations now reject a negative or over-limit count under the org.bouncycastle.pbe.max_iteration_count property (default 10,000,000) that already bounded PBKDF2 (CVE-2026-17508), and the parse rejects a count beyond the int range rather than narrowing it. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle for Java LTS before 2.73.13.

FAQ

How severe is CVE-2026-97873?

CVE-2026-97873 has a CVSS score of N/A/10, rated as Unknown. Review the affected products list and apply vendor patches.

What does the CVSS score mean for CVE-2026-97873?

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) rates vulnerability severity from 0.0 to 10.0. CVE-2026-97873 scores N/A/10 (Unknown). Scores 9.0–10.0 are Critical, 7.0–8.9 are High, 4.0–6.9 are Medium, and below 4.0 are Low.

Which devices are affected by CVE-2026-97873?

The list of devices confirmed to be affected by CVE-2026-97873 is shown in the "Affected Devices" section above. Check your firmware version against the vendor security advisory and apply the latest patch.

How do I fix or mitigate CVE-2026-97873?

Apply the latest firmware or software update from the vendor. Check the References section above for official advisories and patch notes. If no patch is available, consider disabling the affected feature or isolating the device from untrusted networks.