CVE-2026-3505
Description
A flaw was found in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC-JAVA bcpg. A specially crafted PGP AEAD (Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data) message with an unbounded chunk size can lead to an excessive consumption of memory. This issue allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause memory exhaustion in a JVM, resulting in a denial of service.
Statement
To exploit this issue, an attacker needs to submit a specially crafted PGP AEAD message containing an unbounded chunk size to an application. An attack typically requires the application to process this malformed data, resulting in the uncontrolled allocation of memory resources. The primary impact of this vulnerability is a compromise of system availability, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause memory exhaustion in a JVM, resulting in a denial of service.
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, enforce payload size limits on all incoming PGP messages before processing them. Additionally, apply memory quotas to the JVM or container environment to prevent a complete system outage in the event of memory exhaustion.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.5 | N/A | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
When allocating resources without limits, an attacker could prevent other systems, applications, or processes from accessing the same type of resource. It can be easy for an attacker to consume many resources by rapidly making many requests or causing larger resources to be used than is needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
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