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CVE-2026-103603

7.5 · HIGH

Memory allocation with excessive size value in the HSS/LMS signature code (HssPublicKeyParameters, HssSignature) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.

Published Oct 2, 2026bouncycastleCWE-789EPSS 0.52%

Overview

CVE-2026-103603 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting bouncycastle bc-csharp. It was published on October 2, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.

Technical description

Memory allocation with excessive size value in the HSS/LMS signature code (HssPublicKeyParameters, HssSignature) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker who can supply both an HSS public key and a signature to cause a denial of service through memory exhaustion via a public key encoding with an excessive level count, because the level count L read when parsing an HSS public key was not checked against the RFC 8554 maximum of 8, and signature parsing then allocated an array of L - 1 entries before reading any further signature data. A single verification can commit up to about 17 GB of memory or fail with an OutOfMemoryException.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from bouncycastle. Update bc-csharp to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Affected products

VendorProductVersionsStatus
bouncycastlebc-csharp>= 0, < 2.7.0Affected

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-103603?

CVE-2026-103603 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting bouncycastle bc-csharp. It was published on October 2, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-103603?

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.

How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-103603?

Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from bouncycastle. Update bc-csharp to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-103603?

CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2026-103603 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.

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