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CVE-2026-18036NVD
Vulnerability Summary
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.
CVSS v4.0 Base Metrics — Score 8.2 (HIGH)
Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityHigh
Attack RequirementsPresent
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
Confidentiality (Vulnerable System)High
Integrity (Vulnerable System)None
Availability (Vulnerable System)None
Confidentiality (Subsequent System)None
Integrity (Subsequent System)None
Availability (Subsequent System)None
Affected & Patched Versions
- Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC-JAVA >= 1.73 and < 1.86
- Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC-JAVA 1.86