Skip to main content
View

Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain local shell or process access
  2. Delivery
    Connect to p11-kit Unix domain socket
  3. Exploit
    Send crafted RPC request with deeply nested template attributes
  4. Execution
    Trigger unbounded mutual recursion in attribute parser
  5. Persist
    Exhaust thread stack
  6. Impact
    Crash p11-kit server and dependent services

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
CWE-674
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Recursion depth limits
Exploitation Conditions

The attacker must have local access to the p11-kit RPC Unix domain socket on the target system; no p11-kit authentication is required (CVSS PR:N). The vulnerability is triggered by sending an RPC message containing deeply nested PKCS#11 template attributes (specifically CKA_WRAP_TEMPLATE, CKA_UNWRAP_TEMPLATE, or CKA_DERIVE_TEMPLATE). The p11-kit server process must be running in RPC daemon mode - systems using p11-kit purely as a linked library without the server process are not exposed to this specific attack path. Remote exploitation is not possible; the attack surface is strictly the local Unix domain socket. Exploitation is bounded to availability impact only: no code execution, privilege escalation, or data access is achievable through this path. The primary limiting factor is physical or shell-level access to the host, which restricts this to insider threats, co-tenant container environments, or post-compromise lateral movement scenarios.
Impact

The CVSS 3.1 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (score 6.2 Medium) accurately reflects the attack profile: local access is required (AV:L), there is no complexity or privilege barrier once the socket is reachable (AC:L/PR:N), and the impact is purely availability (A:H) with no data exposure or integrity loss. The PR:N designation is notable - it means any local process that can reach the Unix domain socket, including unprivileged users, can trigger the crash without holding any p11-kit credentials. Real-world severity depends heavily on what depends on p11-kit: environments using it for smartcard authentication, HSM-backed TLS, or PKI operations face disruption of those cryptographic pipelines when the server crashes. The crash is recoverable via service restart, but repeated triggering constitutes a persistent DoS. On OpenShift Container Platform 4, the blast radius may extend to containerized workloads relying on p11-kit. No EPSS data was provided; no KEV listing indicates no confirmed active exploitation. No POC is referenced. The gap between CVSS Medium and practical impact is modest - this is a legitimate DoS risk in PKCS#11-dependent production environments, not merely a theoretical finding.
Exploit ScenarioDerived

A local, unprivileged user or process on an affected RHEL system connects to the p11-kit Unix domain socket and transmits a single crafted PKCS#11 RPC request embedding hundreds of levels of nested CKA_WRAP_TEMPLATE attributes. The parser recurses without bound, exhausts the thread stack, and crashes the p11-kit server - taking down any services that depend on it, such as a smartcard-based PAM authentication daemon or an HSM-backed certificate authority. No public exploit code has been identified, but the attack concept is straightforward to implement given the detailed public description of the recursive call chain.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.1% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAIv1 – Jun 29, 2026

Stack exhaustion in p11-kit's RPC server crashes the daemon and any dependent cryptographic services on affected Red Hat systems. The vulnerability exists in the PKCS#11 RPC message parsing layer, where two attribute-handling functions form a mutually-recursive call chain with no depth limit when processing nested CKA_WRAP_TEMPLATE, CKA_UNWRAP_TEMPLATE, and CKA_DERIVE_TEMPLATE attributes - allowing any local user or process with socket access to crash the server by sending a single crafted request. No public exploit or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis, and impact is limited to availability (denial of service) with no confidentiality or integrity consequence.

RemediationAI

Apply the Red Hat-supplied RPM update for p11-kit once released, using standard package management (dnf update p11-kit or yum update p11-kit depending on RHEL version); monitor https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-13757 for confirmed patch availability, as no fixed version number is confirmed in the data available at time of analysis. As an interim compensating control, restrict filesystem permissions on the p11-kit Unix domain socket (typically under /run/p11-kit/) to limit access to only the specific users and service accounts that legitimately require it, effectively converting PR:N to a higher privilege bar in practice - note this may break applications relying on p11-kit for PKCS#11 operations, so test against dependent services before deploying. On OpenShift Container Platform 4, apply Security Context Constraints (SCCs) to prevent untrusted pods from accessing the host socket path. Restarting the p11-kit server process after a crash is sufficient for recovery, but does not prevent re-exploitation.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Sign in to check
Technical ContextAI · show details

p11-kit is a foundational PKCS#11 toolkit that provides a standardized interface for cryptographic tokens such as hardware security modules (HSMs) and smart cards. It exposes an RPC server over a Unix domain socket so that client processes can interact with PKCS#11 providers. The flaw resides in the RPC message parsing functions p11_rpc_message_get_attribute() and p11_rpc_message_get_attribute_array_value(), which handle PKCS#11 attribute structures. PKCS#11 permits meta-attributes - CKA_WRAP_TEMPLATE, CKA_UNWRAP_TEMPLATE, and CKA_DERIVE_TEMPLATE - that themselves embed arrays of further attributes, enabling arbitrary nesting in protocol messages. The two parsing functions invoke each other recursively to process these nested structures without any recursion depth guard, a classic CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion) pattern. A sufficiently deep nesting in an attacker-crafted message overflows the thread stack, causing a process crash. Affected CPE strings span Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10, Red Hat Hardened Images, and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.

Know when Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 gets its next vulnerability

  • Watch products and get an email when something new is published
  • Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
Continue with Google Continue with GitHub

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY 6.2 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 6.2 MEDIUM

Unix domain socket is locally accessible without p11-kit credentials; pure stack-exhaustion crash yields only availability impact with no data disclosure or code execution.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE MEDIUM
Red Hat 6.2 MEDIUM

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

A flaw was found in p11-kit. The RPC message attribute parsing functions p11_rpc_message_get_attribute() and p11_rpc_message_get_attribute_array_value() form a mutually-recursive call chain with no recursion depth limit when processing nested CKA_WRAP_TEMPLATE, CKA_UNWRAP_TEMPLATE, and CKA_DERIVE_TEMPLATE attributes. An unauthenticated attacker with local access to the p11-kit RPC Unix domain socket can send a specially crafted request with deeply nested template attributes, causing stack exhaustion and crashing the p11-kit server process and its dependent services.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.1%
Top 98% exploitable
Prevalence
High
core PKCS#11 toolkit shipped in all RHEL versions
Data Quality
8 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment MSRC Vendor GitHub VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.1%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

31
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +31
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Denial of Service MEDIUM

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_hardened_images:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

View all
CVE-2026-18663 MEDIUM
5.9 Aug 12

Heap corruption via double-free in 389-ds-base's LDAP control parsing allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to crash
CVE-2026-4631 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Apr 07

Remote code execution in Cockpit's web interface allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the h
CVE-2026-4480 CRITICAL POC
9.0 May 26

Remote code execution in Samba's printing subsystem allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary shell commands via craft
CVE-2026-101258 HIGH POC
7.8 Oct 06

Ghostscript can execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of its process when it renders a crafted PostScript
CVE-2026-96889 HIGH POC
7.8 Sep 23

Use-after-free in librsvg during rendering of crafted SVG documents with nested XInclude directives and duplicate entity
CVE-2026-4775 HIGH POC
7.8 Mar 24

A signed integer overflow vulnerability exists in the libtiff library's putcontig8bitYCbCr44tile function that leads to

CVE-2026-114406 MEDIUM POC
6.8 Oct 21

The system CA trust store shipped in Red Hat's ca-certificates RPM packages includes eMudhra root authorities that signe
CVE-2026-18922 CRITICAL
9.8 Sep 07

Authentication bypass in 389 Directory Server (shipped as Red Hat Directory Server 11-13 and within RHEL 6-10) lets remo
CVE-2026-14544 CRITICAL
9.8 Jul 03

Remote code execution and privilege escalation in HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging and Printing) affects the hpcups print filter

CVE-2026-76578 CRITICAL
9.8 Sep 07

Unauthenticated privilege escalation in FreeIPA (Red Hat Identity Management) allows a remote attacker to gain genuine a
CVE-2026-102560 CRITICAL
9.8 Sep 29

A heap buffer overflow exists in libsoup's WebSocket permessage-deflate compression path: when a very large outbound mes
CVE-2026-5121 HIGH
7.5 Mar 30

Remote code execution in libarchive on 32-bit systems allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code via spe

Same weakness CWE-674 – Uncontrolled Recursion

View all
CVE-2019-9545 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2019-9543 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2019-9144 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2019-9143 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2026-66393 HIGH POC
8.7
CVE-2026-18140 HIGH POC
8.7
CVE-2026-93687 HIGH POC
8.7
CVE-2026-9769 HIGH POC
8.7

Same technique Denial Of Service

View all
CVE-2015-5119 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-2462 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-0611 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-1889 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-0507 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2014-1761 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2015-5122 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-0609 HIGH POC
7.8

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Affected

References

Advisories & patches
ADVISORY https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-13757 ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8687-1 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/vuln/374690 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:37469 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:38342 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:49667 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:49668 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:53371 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54387 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54760 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:58981 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72394 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72395 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72399 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72470 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72475 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72476 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:72502 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:81201 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82304 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82322 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82336 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82347 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82354 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82372 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82857 REF https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:82888 REF https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-13757 REF https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2494556 REF https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-p2wm-69qx-x25w

Search Externally

GitHub PoC Exploit-DB PacketStorm Snyk Rapid7 Nuclei Templates Trickest PoC
Back

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy