Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate as local user
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DeliveryOpen persistent KCM responder connection
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ExploitLoop store and destroy credentials
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ExecutionLeaked cached objects exhaust memory
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ImpactSSSD service becomes unresponsive
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Resource cleanup on lifecycle end
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires an authenticated local user account on a host running the SSSD KCM (Kerberos Credential Manager) responder - the default SSSD credential-caching backend on RHEL. The attacker must be able to open and maintain a persistent connection to the KCM responder and repeatedly invoke store/destroy credential operations; the leak accumulates only under this sustained store-then-remove pattern. Limiting factors: exploitation is LOCAL only (no network vector), requires valid local access (PR:L), and is bounded to availability impact against the SSSD service on that single host - it does not yield code execution, data disclosure, or privilege escalation, and systems not using the KCM responder are not affected. |
| Impact | This is a moderate, locally-exploitable availability issue, not a high-priority remote threat. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 5.5) is internally consistent with the description: a LOCAL, already-authenticated user (PR:L) triggers an unbounded memory leak in the SSSD KCM responder (CWE-772), yielding availability-only impact (A:H) with no confidentiality or integrity loss. No EPSS score, KEV listing, POC, or SSVC decision data was provided in the input; per precision rules this means no public exploit is identified and there is no evidence of active exploitation - the absence of these signals is expected for a recently-disclosed, locally-scoped DoS and should not be read as a mitigating 'low exploitation probability' because the data is simply missing. The signals are not conflicting: both the CVSS vector and the prose agree on local, low-privilege, availability-only exploitation. The realistic risk is a single local user being able to degrade or crash the SSSD service (impacting authentication/identity resolution on that host), which matters most on multi-user systems; it is not a mass-exploitation or remote-compromise scenario. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A logged-in local user on a RHEL host opens a persistent connection to the SSSD KCM responder (e.g. via the Kerberos credential cache) and repeatedly stores and destroys credentials in a tight loop. Because freed credential objects are never released from memory, the responder's footprint grows without bound until memory is exhausted and SSSD becomes unresponsive, disrupting Kerberos/identity services for all users on the host. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data, but the technique requires only ordinary local user access and no special tooling. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 06, 2026
Local denial of service in the SSSD Kerberos Credential Manager (KCM) responder allows an authenticated local user to exhaust host memory and make the service unresponsive by holding a persistent connection open while repeatedly storing and destroying Kerberos credentials. The flaw is a resource-lifecycle defect (CWE-772): cached objects are not released when credentials are removed, so memory grows monotonically until the responder stalls. Exploitation requires a valid local account and sustained store-then-destroy activity, yields availability impact only (CVSS 5.5, AV:L/PR:L/UI:N/A:H), and does not provide code execution or privilege escalation; no public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation was identified at time of analysis, and systems that do not use the KCM responder are not affected.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch for CVE-2026-104035 is identified in the available data, so remediation currently depends on monitoring and mitigation rather than an exact fix version; confirm the latest status and any per-stream errata directly from https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-104035 and the tracking bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2479107, and apply the patched sssd package as soon as Red Hat publishes it. In the interim, the most direct compensating control is to cap the responder's memory with a systemd unit limit (for example MemoryMax/MemoryHigh on sssd-kcm.service) so the leak triggers a controlled service restart instead of exhausting host memory - the trade-off being that the responder will be killed and restarted, briefly interrupting Kerberos credential-cache operations for all local users. Operators can also avoid the affected component entirely on hosts where it is not required by switching the Kerberos credential cache away from KCM to an alternative backend such as KEYRING or FILE, at the cost of losing KCM's centralized ticket caching and some single-sign-on behaviors. Restrict interactive local shell access to trusted accounts (the attack needs PR:L and a sustained connection to the KCM socket), and monitor RSS/systemd-cgtop for the sssd-kcm process with alerting on unbounded growth so the daemon can be restarted proactively before availability degrades; note that these workarounds reduce but do not eliminate the underlying leak.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
SSSD (System Security Services Daemon) is the identity and authentication broker on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and its Kerberos Credential Manager (KCM) responder is the default credential-cache backend that stores and manages Kerberos tickets for client applications over a local UNIX domain socket. The root cause is CWE-772, Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime: when a credential is destroyed through the responder, the associated cached object is not dereferenced or freed, so each store-then-destroy cycle permanently leaks memory in the long-running sssd-kcm process. Because the KCM responder is a persistent daemon rather than a per-session process, the leak accumulates across connections and only manifests as exhaustion under sustained, repeated credential churn - matching the assessed vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, which confirms a local, low-complexity, authenticated, no-user-interaction path with availability-only impact. CPE data ties affected deployments to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 plus Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 (whose RHCOS nodes run SSSD). No data-disclosure, integrity, or privilege-escalation primitive is involved, and the impact is scoped to the SSSD service on the single affected host.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Local KCM access by an authenticated user (AV:L/PR:L), trivially repeatable loop (AC:L), memory-exhaustion DoS affects only availability (C:N/I:N/A:H).
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in SSSD. An issue in the Kerberos Credential Manager (KCM) responder allows a local user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by maintaining a persistent connection and repeatedly storing and destroying credentials. Because the service fails to release cached objects from memory when credentials are removed, memory consumption grows continuously, ultimately exhausting available memory and rendering the service unresponsive.
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
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
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EUVD-2026-92892
GHSA-mfvc-j8xf-5w4g
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB