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.
Published: 2026-10-02
Score: 8.2 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Legion Of The Bouncy Castle Inc.
Legion Of The Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-java
Vendors & Products Legion Of The Bouncy Castle Inc.
Legion Of The Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-java

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title NTRU leaks private key information by reducing secret values with a non-constant-time integer division
Weaknesses CWE-208
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.2, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Amber'}


Subscriptions

Legion Of The Bouncy Castle Inc. Bc-java
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: bcorg

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-02T17:42:56.393Z

Reserved: 2026-07-28T08:28:40.900Z

Link: CVE-2026-18036

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-10-02T08:17:01.660

Modified: 2026-10-02T18:17:03.507

Link: CVE-2026-18036

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-10-02T14:15:14Z

Weaknesses