CVE-2026-59648
Description
A flaw was found in Bouncy Castle for Java. The OpenPGP Argon2 S2K (Salted Key Derivation Function) implementation allows a remote attacker to influence the amount of memory and passes used during key derivation. This can lead to a denial of service (DoS) by consuming excessive system resources, making the application unavailable to legitimate users.
Statement
Bouncy Castle for Java is bundled as a cryptographic provider in Red Hat middleware products. The OpenPGP Argon2 S2K implementation honors attacker-chosen memory and pass parameters, so a crafted message can force high resource consumption and a limited denial of service (upstream rates the availability impact as Low). This is reachable via the OpenPGP (bcpg) code paths only.
Mitigation
Red Hat is not aware of a mitigation for this flaw other than updating the affected Bouncy Castle component to a fixed version (bc-java 1.85, LTS 2.73.12, or BC-FJA bcpg-fips 1.0.13/2.0.13/2.1.13) once available for the affected product.
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).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.3 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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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