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Medium

Improper Validation of Integrity Check Value in Bouncy Castle

  • Disclosed: 13.05.2022
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 11:21

The default BKS keystore use an HMAC that is only 16 bits long, which can allow an attacker to compromise the integrity of a BKS keystore. Bouncy Castle release 1.47 changes the BKS format to a format which uses a 160 bit HMAC instead. This applies to any BKS keystore generated prior to BC 1.47. For situations where people need to create the files for legacy reasons a specific keystore type "BKS-V1" was introduced in 1.49. It should be noted that the use of "BKS-V1" is discouraged by the library authors and should only be used where it is otherwise safe to do so, as in where the use of a 16 bit checksum for the file integrity check is not going to cause a security issue in itself.

Affected software

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PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on < 1.50 1.50

References

CVSS score 4.4/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-354
Platform
Java / Kotlin (Maven)
Package
org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on
Disclosed
13.05.2022
Updated
11.10.2026 11:21

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-8477-3v39-ggpm - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (25) in the archive
Total entries
25
First → latest
10.2018 04.2026
Without a fix
3
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 2
  • High 8
  • Medium 14
  • Low 1

Disclosures per year

Severity:
  1. Bouncy Castle for Java GOST 28147 CTR mode reuses keystream after 255 blocks
    Critical · 7.5 CVE-2025-14813 <= 1.7.0 no fix
  2. Improper Validation of Integrity Check Value in Bouncy Castle this entry
    Medium · 4.4 CVE-2018-5382 < 1.50 1.50
  3. Logic error in Legion of the Bouncy Castle BC Java
    High · 8.1 CVE-2020-28052 >= 1.65, < 1.67 1.67
  4. In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider the DHIES implementation allowed the use of ECB mode
    High · 7.4 CVE-2016-1000344 < 1.56 1.56
  5. In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider the ECIES implementation allowed the use of ECB mode
    High · 7.4 CVE-2016-1000352 < 1.56 1.56
  6. In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider the DSA key pair generator generates a weak private key if used with default values
    High · 7.5 CVE-2016-1000343 < 1.56 1.56
  7. In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider ECDSA does not fully validate ASN.1 encoding of signature on verification
    High · 7.5 CVE-2016-1000342 < 1.56 1.56
  8. The Bouncy Castle JCE Provider carry a propagation bug
    High · 7.5 CVE-2016-1000340 >= 1.51, < 1.56 1.56
  9. In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider it is possible to inject extra elements in the sequence making up the signature and still have it validate
    High · 7.5 CVE-2016-1000338 >= 1.38, < 1.56 1.56
  10. Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Bouncy castle
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2018-1000613 >= 1.57, < 1.60 1.60
  11. Bouncy Castle has a flaw in the Low-level interface to RSA key pair generator
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-1000180 < 1.60 1.60

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