Legion of the Bouncy Castle Legion of the Bouncy Castle Java Cryptography APIs 1.58 up to but not including 1.60 contains a CWE-470: Use of Externally-Controlled Input to Select Classes or Code ('Unsafe Reflection') vulnerability in XMSS/XMSS^MT private key deserialization that can result in Deserializing an XMSS/XMSS^MT private key can result in the execution of unexpected code. This attack appear to be exploitable via A handcrafted private key can include references to unexpected classes which will be picked up from the class path for the executing application. This vulnerability appears to have been fixed in 1.60 and later.
This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 24 products from bouncycastle, from netapp, from opensuse and 21 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
First disclosed in 2018, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.
2018-07-09T20:29:00.283
2025-05-12T17:37:16.527
Modified
CVSSv3.1: 9.8 (CRITICAL)
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
10.0
6.4
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For bouncycastle's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.