Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-14041

Bouncycastle Bc-Java 1.73 – 1.78

Public PoC
Published
28 July 2026
Modified
26 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:Amber
EPSS Score 0.0034 28th percentile
Risk Priority 34 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-14041 is a high-severity Observable Timing Discrepancy (CWE-208) vulnerability in Bouncycastle Bc-Java. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Account Discovery (T1087); ranked at the 28th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In Bouncy Castle for Java from 1.73 to before 1.78, three ML-KEM (CRYSTALS-Kyber) routines divided secret-derived polynomial coefficients by the modulus q: Poly.toMsg, which decodes the decrypted message, and the ciphertext compression routines Poly.compressPoly and PolyVec.compressPolyVec. An attacker able to…

more

measure the timing of a large number of decapsulations performed with the same long-term private key can recover that key. These are the KyberSlash1 (Poly.toMsg) and KyberSlash2 (ciphertext compression) divisions. Compression performed during encapsulation operates on values that become the public ciphertext and is not affected.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1087 Account Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of valid accounts, usernames, or email addresses on a system or within a compromised environment.
T1087.001 Local Account Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of local system accounts.
T1087.002 Domain Account Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of domain accounts.
T1087.003 Email Account Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of email addresses and accounts.
T1087.004 Cloud Account Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of cloud accounts.
T1110 Brute Force Credential Access
Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-59652Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2023-33201Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-12852Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-59644Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-59651Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-59643Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-12816Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-12860Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-12803Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java
CVE-2026-59650Same product: Bouncycastle Bc-Java

Affected Assets

bouncycastle
bc-java
1.73 — 1.78

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V11.2.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing can include timing analysis or side-channel test cases that reveal observable timing discrepancies.

Engineering principles can mandate constant-time algorithms and side-channel resistance so timing discrepancies are never introduced.

Requiring approved cryptographic modules and algorithms implicitly demands implementations free of observable timing leaks.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require constant-time implementations that eliminate observable timing discrepancies.

References