CVE-2016-1000338

In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider version 1.55 and earlier the DSA does not fully validate ASN.1 encoding of signature on verification. It is possible to inject extra elements in the sequence making up the signature and still have it validate, which in some cases may allow the introduction of 'invisible' data into a signed structure.

Published: 2018-06-01 Last update: 2025-05-05 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-1000338 is rated Moderate Risk (58.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.85%). EPSS rose +1.47% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-1000338

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.37% 1.85% +1.47%
2 2026-03-13 0.29% 0.37% +0.08%
3 2026-02-23 — 0.29% —

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-1000338

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-1000338

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2016-1000338

GHSA-4vhj-98r6-424h · Severity: high · Ecosystem: maven — In Bouncy Castle JCE Provider it is possible to inject extra elements in the sequence making up the signature and still have it validate

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-1000338

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-1000338 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (bouncycastle), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-1000338
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-1000338
suse high CVE-2016-1000338 severity important: SUSE including 32 source package names (bouncycastle, bouncycastle-1.64-1.63, …), 34 product×package rows across 8 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, … (8 product lines)): Fixed 32, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-1000338/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-1000338 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (bouncycastle), 20 status rows across 20 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 17, released 2, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-1000338

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-1000338

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
bouncycastle legion-of-the-bouncy-castle-java-crytography-api >= 1.38, < 1.56 cpe:2.3:a:bouncycastle:legion-of-the-bouncy-castle-java-crytography-api:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat satellite 6.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:satellite:6.4:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat satellite_capsule 6.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:satellite_capsule:6.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp 7-mode_transition_tool — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:7-mode_transition_tool:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-1000338

cvelogic Threat Intelligence