Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessReach AD FS endpoint over network
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DeliverySend crafted federation request
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ExploitOverflow stack buffer in parser
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ExecutionCrash AD FS service
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ImpactDeny SSO to relying parties
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Stack buffer bounds checking
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires network reachability to a running AD FS server's federation endpoint; the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) confirms no authentication, no user interaction, and low attack complexity, so against a reachable AD FS instance no special conditions apply beyond the AD FS role being installed and accepting network requests. The practical limiting factor is exposure scope: AD FS exists only where an organization has deployed on-premises federation/SSO, and internet reachability typically depends on whether a Web Application Proxy publishes the endpoints externally versus keeping them internal-only. Impact is limited to availability (C:N/I:N/A:H) - the attacker can crash the service but cannot read tokens, forge authentication, or execute code - so the condition that matters for defenders is a network path to the AD FS listener, not any credential or configuration prerequisite. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) describes a network-reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated attack with no user interaction whose sole consequence is high availability impact - a pure denial of service with no confidentiality or integrity loss. This is a genuine operational concern rather than a data-breach risk: knocking out AD FS breaks SSO for every relying-party application that depends on it, effectively locking users out of federated services until the service recovers. However, EPSS data was not provided, the CVE is not in CISA KEV, and no proof-of-concept is referenced, so there is no evidence of active or imminent exploitation. Weighing these signals together, this is a meaningful availability risk for identity infrastructure but not a code-execution or lateral-movement threat; prioritize patching on internet-facing AD FS/Web Application Proxy deployments while treating purely internal instances as important-but-not-emergency. Note the SSVC fields (exploitation status, automatable, technical impact) were not supplied, so automatability cannot be independently confirmed. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker with network access to the AD FS service - for example through an internet-exposed Web Application Proxy or from an internal foothold - sends a specially crafted request to the vulnerable AD FS endpoint that overflows a stack buffer during parsing, crashing the service. Because no authentication or user interaction is required (PR:N/UI:N) and complexity is low (AC:L), the attacker can repeatedly trigger the fault to keep federated SSO offline. No public proof-of-concept is identified at time of analysis. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 14, 2026
Denial of service in Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to crash or render the federation service unavailable by triggering a stack-based buffer overflow over the network. The flaw affects the AD FS role across Windows Server 2012 through 2025 (including Server Core installations) and carries a CVSS 7.5 rating driven entirely by availability impact. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and it is not listed in CISA KEV, but a vendor patch is available.
RemediationAI
Patch available per vendor advisory: apply the Microsoft security update for CVE-2026-50355 detailed at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-50355, selecting the KB package matching each AD FS server's Windows Server version (2012 through 2025, including Server Core). Because the input data does not include an exact fixed build number, obtain the specific version from the MSRC update guide rather than assuming a value. Until patching is complete, reduce exposure by ensuring AD FS endpoints are not directly internet-facing - publish them through a Web Application Proxy that can terminate and filter federation traffic - and restrict network reachability of the AD FS service ports to only the proxy and trusted relying parties; the trade-off is that overly aggressive filtering can block legitimate federated logins, so validate rules against your relying-party inventory. Monitor AD FS service health and the Windows Event Log for unexpected service restarts as an early indicator of exploitation attempts.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 13 packages in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
AD FS is Microsoft's on-premises identity federation and single sign-on (SSO) service that issues security tokens (SAML/WS-Federation/OAuth) to broker authentication between organizations and relying-party applications. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow), meaning a fixed-size buffer on the call stack is overrun when the service processes attacker-supplied network input, corrupting stack memory such as the return address or adjacent local variables. Because AD FS endpoints are typically exposed to internal networks and, via the Web Application Proxy, sometimes to the internet to support federated logins, the parsing path that mishandles the input is reachable remotely. The affected CPE set spans the Windows Server family (2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019) with tags additionally naming Server 2022 and 2025, indicating the defective code resides in the AD FS role component shared across these OS versions rather than in a single OS build.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remote, unauthenticated, low-complexity network request crashes the service (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N); impact is availability-only DoS, so C:N/I:N/A:H with unchanged scope.
Primary rating from Vendor (microsoft).
CVSS VectorVendor: microsoft
DescriptionCVE.org
Stack-based buffer overflow in Active Directory Federation Services allows an unauthorized attacker to deny service over a network.
Executive ViewAI
Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) across Windows Server 2012-2025 is vulnerable to remote denial-of-service attacks by unauthenticated attackers, which can crash the federation service and disrupt organization-wide SSO and authentication. An available vendor patch addresses this availability risk to critical identity infrastructure.
Apply vendor patch.
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 buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
A stack-based buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a buffer located on the stack than it was allocated to hold.
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