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OpenPGP certification accepted from a subkey without certification authority

CVSS 4.0 8.2 HIGHCheck source for fixed versionsKEV status unknown

Historical advisory recorded 23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC. Read the latest advisory.

cve-program · CVE-2026-71886

Published

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the high-level OpenPGP certificate API accepted a third-party certification or trust delegation from any component key of the issuing certificate, without requiring that component to have been granted the authority to certify. OpenPGPCertificate.getCertificationBy() and getDelegationBy() resolve a third-party signature by matching its issuer key identifier against every key of the third-party certificate, then verify the issuing component's binding chain and the signature itself; nothing checked that the issuing component carried the RFC 9580 sec. 5.2.3.29 certification key flag (CERTIFY_OTHER) when the signature was created. A subkey bound only with SIGN_DATA - the online signing subkey of exactly the offline-primary arrangement those key flags exist to express - could therefore issue a positive User ID certification over an attacker-controlled identity, or a full-trust depth-one direct-key delegation of introducer trust, and the API returned it as a valid signature chain attributed to the third-party certificate. An application treating getCertificationBy(...).isValid() or getDelegationBy(...) as an identity or trusted-introducer decision would attribute the attacker's assertion to the offline primary key. The same held for a legacy RSA subkey bound only for encryption, whose algorithm is nonetheless able to sign. This does not forge the primary key's signature or recover any private key; it promotes an already-compromised restricted subkey to the primary key's identity-issuing authority, defeating the containment the key-flag separation provides. A third-party certification or delegation is now attributed to the issuing certificate only when the component key that made it is the primary key, or is a subkey holding CERTIFY_OTHER when the signature was created, so certification-capable subkeys continue to be accepted; primary keys are accepted whatever their key flags say, since a primary key is certification-capable by construction and certificates carrying no key flags subpacket at all are common. Third-party revocations are deliberately outside the rule, since declining to honour one would keep trust alive rather than withdraw it.

Read the publisher's advisory

Affected versions, risk and source history

cve-program · CVE-2026-71886

Published

bcpg

https://www.bouncycastle.org/download/bouncy-castle-java/

Publisher's version information

Shown as published. These rules are not interpreted as NuGet package version ranges.

{
                    "vendor": "Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.",
                    "product": "BC-JAVA",
                    "platforms": [
                        "all"
                    ],
                    "collectionURL": "https://www.bouncycastle.org/download/bouncy-castle-java/",
                    "packageName": "bcpg",
                    "repo": "https://github.com/bcgit/bc-java",
                    "packageURL": "pkg:maven/org.bouncycastle/bcpg-jdk18on",
                    "modules": [
                        "pg"
                    ],
                    "programFiles": [
                        "OpenPGPCertificate"
                    ],
                    "versions": [
                        {
                            "status": "affected",
                            "version": "1.81",
                            "lessThan": "1.86",
                            "versionType": "maven"
                        }
                    ],
                    "defaultStatus": "unaffected"
                }

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

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Sources read 12 Nov 15:26 UTC · 274 of 275 readable · 272 fully read · documentation 469/469 current