Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
4DescriptionNVD
A flaw was found in 389 Directory Server. The SMD5 password storage plugin performs unsigned integer underflow when computing salt length from a crafted password hash shorter than 16 bytes, causing a buffer over-read that crashes the LDAP server during authentication.
AnalysisAI
Denial-of-service in Red Hat's 389 Directory Server allows a highly privileged network attacker to crash the LDAP service by submitting a crafted password hash shorter than 16 bytes during authentication. The SMD5 password storage plugin performs an unsigned integer underflow (CWE-191) when computing salt length from this malformed input, producing a buffer over-read that terminates the server process. No public exploit code exists and this vulnerability has not been confirmed actively exploited (CISA KEV), but the impact is a complete loss of LDAP availability with low attack complexity once the required privilege level is achieved.
Technical ContextAI
389 Directory Server is the upstream LDAP server underlying Red Hat Directory Server (RHDS) and the directory service bundled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The affected code path is the SMD5 (salted MD5) password storage plugin, which processes stored password hashes during bind operations. When the stored hash value is fewer than 16 bytes, the plugin attempts to compute a salt length by subtracting from an unsigned integer, producing a wrap-around underflow (CWE-191: Integer Underflow). The resulting oversized value is then used to read beyond the allocated buffer, constituting a buffer over-read that is sufficient to crash the server process. This is an availability-only flaw - no memory disclosure or code execution path has been identified. The CVSS vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N confirms network reachability with low complexity but mandatory high-privilege authentication.
RemediationAI
Patch available per vendor advisory - consult https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-11789 for specific RHSA advisory numbers and exact fixed package versions, as no patched version number was included in the available input data. As an interim workaround, administrators can disable the SMD5 password storage plugin in 389 Directory Server if it is not required; this prevents the vulnerable code path from being reached entirely but will break authentication for any accounts whose stored password hashes use the SMD5 scheme (those accounts will be unable to bind until their passwords are reset with a supported algorithm such as PBKDF2 or bcrypt). A second mitigating control is to restrict LDAP bind access via ACIs or network firewall rules so that only known, trusted sources can reach the directory service's LDAP port (default 389/636), reducing the likelihood of a compromised high-privilege account being leveraged from an untrusted host. Neither workaround substitutes for the vendor patch.
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Same weakness CWE-191 – Integer Underflow
View allSame technique Denial Of Service
View allVendor StatusVendor
SUSE
Severity: Moderate| Product | Status |
|---|---|
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| suse/389-ds | Affected |
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-35421
GHSA-jjqx-m459-2x33