Threat Intelligence Database

Bouncy Castle for Java FIPS (BC-FJA) versions before 1.0.2.7 (1.0.X series), 2.0.2 (2.0.X series), and 2.1.3 (2.1.X series) use Object.finalize for zeroising sensitive key material. Finalization timing and order are unspecified and rely on a single finalizer thread, which can cause delays in zeroisation and lead to sensitive key material remaining in memory longer than intended. This behavior can cause increased memory usage and potential OutOfMemoryError under load. The issue affects Java versions later than 11 where finalization is deprecated. The zeroisation mechanism has been updated to use java.lang.ref.Cleaner on Java 9 and later, avoiding reliance on finalization. Bouncy Castle for Java (bcprov) and Bouncy Castle for Java LTS are not affected as they do not use this finalizer-based zeroisation.

A vulnerability in Bouncy Castle for Java FIPS (BC-FJA) before version 2.1.3 causes the native entropy source on Intel platforms to retry CPU entropy instructions indefinitely if they fail persistently. This results in an uninterruptible hang in the JNI seeding routine, potentially causing denial of service for applications relying on this entropy source. The issue is fixed by bounding retry attempts and throwing an exception on exhaustion. Bouncy Castle for Java (bcprov) and earlier FIPS series 1.0.X and 2.0.X are not affected.

Bouncy Castle for Java versions prior to 1.85 and certain LTS and FIPS versions contain a vulnerability that may cause an out-of-memory (OOM) condition due to unbounded memory allocation during a definite-length read operation. This issue affects multiple Bouncy Castle Java variants including LTS before 2.73.12, BC-FJA before 1.0.2.7, 2.0.2, and 2.1.3, and bctls-fips before 1.0.24. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-789 (Uncontrolled Memory Allocation).