CVE-2026-71885: MLS X.509 credential not bound to the LeafNode signature key
In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, the Messaging Layer Security (MLS, RFC 9420) implementation did not bind an X.509 credential to a LeafNode's signaturekey. LeafNode.verify() checked a leaf's signature against the signaturekey carried in the leaf itself, while the credential's X.509 certificate chain was stored but never parsed or validated, so the end-entity certificate's public key was never required to match signaturekey as RFC 9420 sec. 5.3 requires. A party could therefore present another party's certificate as its credential while signing the leaf, and the enclosing KeyPackage, with an unrelated key, and be accepted under that other party's identity through KeyPackage.verify() and the Group leaf-validation path. In a deployment that admits external commits without an independent credential-admission check, an unauthenticated attacker could be admitted under a victim's X.509 identity, evict the victim (resynchronization compares whole credentials rather than signing keys), derive the current epoch, decrypt subsequent group messages, and send messages accepted as the victim. TreeKEM.LeafNode now requires the end-entity certificate's subject public key, in the cipher suite's signature encoding, to equal signaturekey for an X.509 credential and rejects the leaf otherwise, including an empty chain or a certificate whose key type does not match the cipher suite; certificate-chain and identity validation to a trust anchor remain the application's responsibility per RFC 9420 sec. 5.3.1. Deployments using only basic credentials are unaffected.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which deployments are exposed to unauthenticated admission under another user's identity?
Deployments using the affected MLS implementation that admit external commits without an independent credential-admission check are exposed. In that scenario, an attacker can present a victim's X.509 certificate credential while using an unrelated signing key.
What can an attacker do after exploiting this issue?
The attacker can be admitted under the victim's X.509 identity, evict the victim during resynchronization, derive the current epoch, decrypt subsequent group messages, and send messages accepted as the victim.
What version contains the fix?
Bouncy Castle for Java versions before 1.86 are affected. The updated TreeKEM.LeafNode behavior requires the end-entity certificate subject public key to match the LeafNode signature key.