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CVE-2026-18036

BC-JAVA: NTRU leaks private key information by reducing secret values with a non-constant-time integer division

Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC-JAVA
CVSS
8.2High
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.28%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in1.86Fixed versionCVE List
Published2 Oct 2026Updated 2 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, NTRU reduced secret values with the % operator in three helpers whose reference implementations are deliberately division-free, so each reduction was carried out by an integer division whose latency depends on the secret operand. Polynomial.modQ divided by a variable divisor, which a compiler cannot strength-reduce to a multiply the way it can a constant one, so it emitted a division on every call including on the decapsulation path where the dividend derives from the private key; Polynomial.mod3 and NTRUSampling.mod3 divided the secret key polynomials f and g during key generation, the message polynomials r and m during encapsulation, and coefficients recovered during decapsulation. An attacker able to measure that timing can recover information about the NTRU private key. modQ now masks, which is exact because q is always a power of two, and mod3 uses the reference implementation's division-free fold and select; the results are unchanged.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 1

  • BC-JAVAaffected: 1.73 before 1.86CVE List

References 2