Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessAuthenticate to directory with ModifyDN rights
-
ExploitIssue rename using attribute alias as new RDN
-
ImpactTrigger NULL pointer dereference, crashing ns-slapd (DoS)
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires an authenticated LDAP bind plus an access control instruction granting the attacker ModifyDN (rename/modrdn) permission on the target entry; the attacker must then perform a rename whose new RDN specifies an attribute by a schema alias name (e.g. 'commonName') rather than its canonical name (e.g. 'cn'). Limiting factors: valid credentials and an explicit modrdn ACI on an entry are both needed (PR:L), so anonymous or ordinary read-only users cannot trigger it; impact is limited to availability (server crash/DoS) with no data disclosure or modification. This affects Red Hat Directory Server 11/12/13 and the 389-ds-base shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6-10 per the supplied CPEs. |
| Impact | The signals point to a genuine but moderate-priority availability issue rather than a top-tier emergency. The provided CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 6.5) indicates a network-reachable, low-complexity attack with no user interaction and pure availability impact (no confidentiality or integrity loss), but it explicitly requires low privileges (PR:L) - the attacker must already be an authenticated LDAP user holding ModifyDN/rename permission on the target entry, which meaningfully narrows the realistic attacker population. There is no KEV listing, so exploitation status is: no public exploit identified at time of analysis; the only references are the Red Hat CVE page and a Bugzilla tracker, neither of which is PoC or exploit code. No EPSS score is present in the input, so probabilistic exploitation likelihood cannot be quantified. The vuln.today decision label is 'this_month', consistent with a reproducible authenticated DoS that should be remediated on a normal patch cadence rather than treated as act_now/emergency. No SSVC exploitation/automatable/technical-impact decision values were supplied. Net: a credible, easily triggered crash for someone who already has rename rights, but the privilege prerequisite and the absence of KEV/PoC/EPSS keep real-world urgency moderate. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An authenticated directory user who has been granted ModifyDN (rename) rights on at least one entry issues a rename (modrdn) operation whose new relative distinguished name uses a schema attribute alias such as 'commonName' instead of the canonical attribute name 'cn'. The server fails to resolve the alias and dereferences a NULL pointer, crashing the directory server process and denying service to all clients. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, and no user interaction by others is needed. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 29, 2026
Crashing 389-ds-base directory servers is possible for an authenticated LDAP user who holds ModifyDN permission on an entry: renaming it with a schema alias such as 'commonName' instead of the canonical 'cn' causes a NULL pointer dereference and denial of service. The flaw affects Red Hat Directory Server 11, 12, and 13 and the 389-ds-base packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10; exploitation requires valid credentials plus an explicit modrdn ACI, so anonymous or read-only users cannot trigger it. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the impact is limited to availability with no data disclosure or modification, making this a moderate-priority availability issue rather than a top-tier emergency.
RemediationAI
Primary remediation is to apply the Red Hat errata for 389-ds-base when released; no fixed version is specified in the supplied data, so track https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-117548 and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2561778 for the patched build. Until then, restrict and review ACIs that grant ModifyDN (rename/modrdn) rights, removing them from broad or untrusted groups; the trade-off is that delegated rename operations stop working for those principals. Enforce canonical attribute names such as 'cn' rather than schema aliases such as 'commonName' in directory management tooling and client automation; this reduces accidental triggering but does not stop a malicious user who already holds modrdn permission. Because the crash requires an authenticated bind and explicit modrdn access, limiting those permissions to trusted administrators is the main practical control.
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.
Technical ContextAI · show details
389-ds-base is the LDAP directory server engine underlying Red Hat Directory Server. Directory entries have relative distinguished names built from schema attributes, and the schema permits alias names for attributes in addition to canonical names. During a ModifyDN (rename/modrdn) operation, the server resolves the attribute named in the new RDN; when an alias such as 'commonName' is supplied instead of the canonical 'cn', the affected code path dereferences a NULL pointer, which terminates the server process. The root cause class is CWE-476 NULL pointer dereference. The supplied CPEs map the issue to Red Hat Directory Server 11, 12, and 13 and to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 packages. The trigger is a rename whose new RDN uses a schema alias name; the available sources do not describe further code-level details or additional preconditions beyond the required authenticated bind and modrdn ACI.
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
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Network-reachable LDAP rename with no user interaction (AV:N/AC:L/UI:N), but requires authenticated modrdn rights on the entry (PR:L); only the server crashes, so C:N/I:N/A:H.
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in 389-ds-base. This flaw occurs when a ModifyDN (rename) operation uses an attribute's schema alias name (such as "commonName") instead of its canonical name (such as "cn") as the new relative distinguished name. An authenticated attacker with the ModifyDN (rename) permission on the affected entry can use this flaw to crash the directory server, causing a denial of service.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
More in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
View allHeap corruption via double-free in 389-ds-base's LDAP control parsing allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to crash
Remote code execution in Cockpit's web interface allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the h
Remote code execution in Samba's printing subsystem allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary shell commands via craft
Ghostscript can execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of its process when it renders a crafted PostScript
Use-after-free in librsvg during rendering of crafted SVG documents with nested XInclude directives and duplicate entity
A signed integer overflow vulnerability exists in the libtiff library's putcontig8bitYCbCr44tile function that leads to
The system CA trust store shipped in Red Hat's ca-certificates RPM packages includes eMudhra root authorities that signe
Authentication bypass in 389 Directory Server (shipped as Red Hat Directory Server 11-13 and within RHEL 6-10) lets remo
Remote code execution and privilege escalation in HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging and Printing) affects the hpcups print filter
Unauthenticated privilege escalation in FreeIPA (Red Hat Identity Management) allows a remote attacker to gain genuine a
A heap buffer overflow exists in libsoup's WebSocket permessage-deflate compression path: when a very large outbound mes
Remote code execution in libarchive on 32-bit systems allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code via spe
EUVD-2026-112637
GHSA-7q7x-f5rc-ffjj
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB