bc-csharp vulnerability

Loop with unreachable exit condition in Pkcs12Store.GetCertificateChain in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows an attacker who can supply a crafted PKCS#12 file to an application that loads it and requests a key entry's certificate chain to cause a denial of service, in which the call never returns and consumes CPU and memory until an OutOfMemoryException, via certificates whose issuer links form a cycle, for example two certificates whose AuthorityKeyIdentifier extensions each identify the other's public key. This happens because the chain-building loop stops only when no issuer is found or a certificate links to itself, and keeps no record of certificates already visited. The key-identifier links are followed without checking signatures.

Published 2 Oct 2026Updated 2 Oct 20262 sources
CVSS 7.1

What happened

Loop with unreachable exit condition in Pkcs12Store.GetCertificateChain in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows an attacker who can supply a crafted PKCS#12 file to an application that loads it and requests a key entry's certificate chain to cause a denial of service, in which the call never returns and consumes CPU and memory until an OutOfMemoryException, via certificates whose issuer links form a cycle, for example two certificates whose AuthorityKeyIdentifier extensions each identify the other's public key. This happens because the chain-building loop stops only when no issuer is found or a certificate links to itself, and keeps no record of certificates already visited. The key-identifier links are followed without checking signatures.

Affected versions

bc-csharp: before 2.7.0 (semver) Fixed: See vendor advisory.

Why it matters

Review the vendor advisory and exposure of the affected product to determine operational impact.

Detection & mitigation

  • Apply vendor-provided updates or mitigations.
  • Review affected product exposure and access logs.

Public PoC references

No public PoC reference has passed the current publication threshold.