CVE-2026-16001 PUBLISHED

IesEngine stream-mode MAC forgery via length-dependent KDF split

Assigner: bcorg
Reserved: 16.07.2026 Published: 02.10.2026 Updated: 02.10.2026

Exposure of the message authentication key through the encryption keystream in the stream mode of IesEngine (an IesEngine constructed without a block cipher) in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. bc-csharp before 2.7.0 allows a remote attacker who has observed one encrypted message with known plaintext to forge shorter messages of their choosing that the recipient accepts as authentic, via a crafted ciphertext and MAC tag, because the MAC key was taken from the key derivation output directly after a keystream as long as the message, while the derivation input depends only on the static key pair and fixed parameters. The keystream revealed by that one message therefore contains the MAC key for every sufficiently shorter message.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 8.2

Product Status

Vendor Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.
Product bc-csharp
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 2.7.0 (excl.)

Credits

  • Discovered by Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, and triaged by the Anthropic security team in collaboration with Anthropic Research. finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-354 Improper Validation of Integrity Check Value CWE

Impacts

  • Integrity: forgery of authenticated stream-mode IES messages from one known-plaintext observation