CVE 2026 112323

The AUTH_GSSAPI handler in lib/rpc/svc_auth_gssapi.c in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) 1.5.2 and later allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion in kadmind) by sending repeated failed AUTH_GSSAPI_INIT requests. Each failed request allocates client state that is only freed after a 15-minute expiration timeout, allowing an attacker to accumulate memory faster than it is reclaimed.

This vulnerability is rated as Important because an unauthenticated remote attacker can cause sustained memory exhaustion leading to a denial of service on reachable administrative endpoints without requiring valid credentials. It does not qualify for a Critical rating because the flaw does not facilitate arbitrary code execution or compromise data integrity and confidentiality. On standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations, the affected kadmind service is not enabled by default and is typically confined to dedicated Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) environments.

Restrict network access to kadmind to trusted hosts, or disable it in favor of kadmin.local server-side command line tool for administration operations if possible.

Bugzilla 2478440 : krb5: MIT krb5 kadmind unauthenticated memory exhaustion via failed AUTH_GSSAPI_INIT requests

CWE-772 : Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert: Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)

An attacker that can influence the allocation of resources that are not properly released could deplete the available resource pool and prevent all other processes from accessing the same type of resource. Frequently-affected resources include memory, CPU, disk space, power or battery, etc.

This issue was discovered by Found by AISLE in partnership with Red Hat.

Frequently Asked Questions

"Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.

The term 'Affected' means that our Analysis team has determined that this product, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to address this issue in the near future. This includes all minor releases of this product unless noted otherwise in the Statement text.

Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).

Apply a mitigation (if one exists).

Customers with the Technical Account Manager (TAM) RHEL Security Select Add-on can review this CVE directly with their TAM.

Apply a mitigation (if one exists).

Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on the impact and product lifecycle expectations. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

Customers with the technical account manager (TAM) RHEL Security Select Add-on can review this CVE directly with their TAM.

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