CVE-2025-8916 | Possible DOS in processing large name constraint structures in PKIXCertPathReveiwer

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC Java bcpkix on All (API modules), Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BC Java bcprov on All (API modules), Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc. BCPKIX FIPS bcpkix-fips on All (API modules) allows Excessive Allocation. This vulnerability is associated with program files https://github.Com/bcgit/bc-java/blob/main/pkix/src/main/java/org/bouncycastle/pkix/jcajce/PKIXCertPathReviewer.Java, https://github.Com/bcgit/bc-java/blob/main/prov/src/main/java/org/bouncycastle/x509/PKIXCertPathReviewer.Java. This issue affects BC Java: from 1.44 through 1.78; BC Java: from 1.44 through 1.78; BCPKIX FIPS: from 1.0.0 through 1.0.7, from 2.0.0 through 2.0.7.

Published: 2025-08-13 Last update: 2026-05-12 Assigner: 91579145-5d7b-4cc5-b925-a0262ff19630 Source: 91579145-5d7b-4cc5-b925-a0262ff19630
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-8916 is rated Low Risk (32.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2025-8916

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 2026-04-29 0.03% 0.06% +0.04%
2 2026-02-18 0.06% 0.03% -0.03%
3 2025-08-19 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-8916

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.3 4.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/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:P/AU:X/R:U/V:X/RE:M/U:Amber Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:P)
Additional preconditions must be present for exploitation.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:L)
Limited availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:P)
Present: impact meets IEC 61508 marginal, critical, or catastrophic safety consequence levels.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:U)
User: manual user intervention is needed to recover services.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:M)
Moderate effort (remote update, disable subsystem, simple upgrade with minor service impact).
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:AMBER)
Amber: provider rates moderate urgency.
 — — 91579145-5d7b-4cc5-b925-a0262ff19630

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-8916

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-8916

GHSA-4cx2-fc23-5wg6 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Bouncy Castle for Java bcpkix, bcprov, bcpkix-fips on All (API modules) allows Excessive Allocation

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-8916

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-8916 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (bouncycastle), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-8916
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-8916
suse medium CVE-2025-8916 severity moderate: SUSE including 8 source package names (bouncycastle, bouncycastle-javadoc, …), 62 product×package rows across 16 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS, … (16 product lines)): Known Not Affected 62. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-8916/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-8916 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (bouncycastle), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): ignored 5, released 2, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-8916

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-8916

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-8916

cvelogic Threat Intelligence