Description
In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, NTRU reduced secret values with the % operator in three helpers whose reference implementations are deliberately division-free, so each reduction was carried out by an integer division whose latency depends on the secret operand. Polynomial.modQ divided by a variable divisor, which a compiler cannot strength-reduce to a multiply the way it can a constant one, so it emitted a division on every call including on the decapsulation path where the dividend derives from the private key; Polynomial.mod3 and NTRUSampling.mod3 divided the secret key polynomials f and g during key generation, the message polynomials r and m during encapsulation, and coefficients recovered during decapsulation. An attacker able to measure that timing can recover information about the NTRU private key. modQ now masks, which is exact because q is always a power of two, and mod3 uses the reference implementation's division-free fold and select; the results are unchanged.
No analysis available yet.
Remediation
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Tracking
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Advisories
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References
History
Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, NTRU reduced secret values with the % operator in three helpers whose reference implementations are deliberately division-free, so each reduction was carried out by an integer division whose latency depends on the secret operand. Polynomial.modQ divided by a variable divisor, which a compiler cannot strength-reduce to a multiply the way it can a constant one, so it emitted a division on every call including on the decapsulation path where the dividend derives from the private key; Polynomial.mod3 and NTRUSampling.mod3 divided the secret key polynomials f and g during key generation, the message polynomials r and m during encapsulation, and coefficients recovered during decapsulation. An attacker able to measure that timing can recover information about the NTRU private key. modQ now masks, which is exact because q is always a power of two, and mod3 uses the reference implementation's division-free fold and select; the results are unchanged. | |
| Title | NTRU leaks private key information by reducing secret values with a non-constant-time integer division | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-208 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV4_0
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Subscriptions
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: bcorg
Published:
Updated: 2026-10-02T07:54:16.063Z
Reserved: 2026-07-28T08:28:40.900Z
Link: CVE-2026-18036
No data.
Status : Received
Published: 2026-10-02T08:17:01.660
Modified: 2026-10-02T08:17:01.660
Link: CVE-2026-18036
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.
Weaknesses
-
CWE-208
Observable Timing Discrepancy