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Attack ChainAIDerived

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

  1. Access
    Reach sssd auth/lookup endpoint remotely
  2. Delivery
    Submit certificate lacking SID extension
  3. Exploit
    Trigger NULL pointer dereference in mapping logic
  4. Execution
    Crash sssd process
  5. Impact
    Deny authentication services to users

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

Exploitation requires the sssd deployment to be configured with SID-based certificate mapping rules - this is the specific, non-default feature that makes the vulnerable code path reachable; standard installations without SID-based cert mapping are not affected. The attacker must be able to present a certificate to an authentication or lookup operation and the certificate must lack the expected Security Identifier (SID) extension so that the unchecked dereference occurs. Limiting factors: the dependence on this particular mapping configuration (reflected in CVSS AC:H) significantly narrows the exposed population, and impact is confined to denial of service of the sssd process with no data disclosure or code execution.

Impact

This is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) availability-only flaw with a realistic but bounded risk profile. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) shows a network-reachable, unauthenticated vector but with high attack complexity and impact strictly limited to availability - no confidentiality or integrity loss (CWE-476, NULL pointer dereference). The AC:H rating correctly reflects that exploitation is not universal: it depends on a non-default deployment choice (SID-based certificate mapping rules). No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, SSVC decision data, or public POC was supplied in the input, so there is no signal of active or probable exploitation; absence of these is not proof of safety but means there is nothing to elevate this above its base score. Overall this reads as a genuine but non-urgent patching priority: a repeatable crash of an authentication/identity service (availability impact on a security-critical daemon can be meaningful for uptime and lockouts), not a high-impact remote-code-execution or data-exposure issue. Note the signals are internally consistent - network vector with high complexity matches a config-dependent, unauthenticated crash - so no contradictions require vendor verification here.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

In an environment where sssd is configured with SID-based certificate mapping, a remote attacker submits a crafted certificate that omits the expected SID extension during a smartcard/certificate authentication or lookup operation. Because the service dereferences the missing extension without checking for its presence, the sssd process crashes, denying authentication services to legitimate users. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data, and the high attack complexity reflects the requirement for the specific mapping configuration to be present.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
No patch listed yet 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 06, 2026

Denial of service in SSSD (the System Security Services Daemon) allows remote unauthenticated attackers to crash the daemon by presenting a certificate that is missing the expected Security Identifier (SID) extension during authentication or lookup operations. Only deployments explicitly configured with SID-based certificate mapping rules reach the vulnerable code path, since the certificate-to-user lookup logic dereferences the SID extension without first confirming it exists; standard installations that do not use SID-based certificate mapping are not affected. The flaw is rated CVSS 5.9 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/C:N/I:N/A:H, availability-only) and, per available intelligence, no public exploit code exists and exploitation has not been confirmed as active - no public exploit identified at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis; check the Red Hat CVE page (https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-104038) and the linked Bugzilla entry (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2478980) for errata versions as they are published and apply the sssd package update for your RHEL 6/7/8/9/10 or OpenShift Container Platform 4 release once it is available. Until then, the most direct compensating control is to stop using SID-based certificate mapping: remove or disable the SID-based mapping rules (for example the certificate mapping entries that rely on the AD SID extension) from sssd.conf and use alternative mapping mechanisms such as explicit issuer/subject or UPN-based certificate mapping rules - the trade-off is that certificates will no longer be matched to AD accounts by SID, so you must define equivalent issuer/subject mappings manually or fall back to password/other authentication for those accounts. Additional hardening with trade-offs: restrict which clients can reach the sssd-backed authentication and lookup interfaces (SSH, PAM, LDAP/Kerberos-backed services) so untrusted parties cannot submit certificates, at the cost of narrowing access for legitimate remote users; if certificate authentication cannot be disabled, consider fronting it with a proxy that rejects certificates lacking the SID extension, though such filtering is brittle and must be kept in sync with the SID OID; and enable sssd crash/core-dump monitoring and automatic service restarts so that an exploited crash is detected and recovery is fast, while noting that a restart temporarily disrupts identity lookups for all users on the host.

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

SSSD is the identity and authentication broker used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) and by Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 nodes to resolve users and groups and to authenticate against backends such as Active Directory, LDAP and Kerberos. The affected feature is SID-based certificate mapping, in which a client certificate carries the Active Directory Security Identifier extension (the Microsoft-defined SID extension, OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.2) and SSSD uses that SID to locate the corresponding AD account instead of relying on subject/issuer matching. The root cause class is CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference): the certificate-mapping code path retrieves the SID extension and dereferences it without verifying that the extension is present in the incoming certificate. A certificate that omits the extension therefore yields a NULL (or unpopulated) pointer that is used in the authentication or lookup routine, terminating the sssd process. Because the flaw is a crash triggered by malformed-but-valid input rather than memory corruption, impact is confined to availability - no data disclosure or code execution is implied by the assessed vector (C:N/I:N/A:H). The AC:H vector component and the independent assessment both reflect that reachability depends on the non-default SID-based certificate mapping configuration.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY 5.9 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 5.9 MEDIUM

Certificate is processed during unauthenticated authentication (AV:N, PR:N), but the vulnerable path requires non-default SID-based mapping plus a crafted cert (AC:H); only availability is impacted.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Red Hat 5.9 MEDIUM

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

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

DescriptionCVE.org

A flaw was found in sssd. A remote attacker can cause a denial of service (DoS) by submitting a certificate that lacks an expected Security Identifier (SID) extension. In deployments configured with SID-based certificate mapping rules, the service fails to verify the presence of the extension before processing it, causing the process to crash during authentication or lookup operations.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 88% exploitable
Prevalence
High
sssd is a default identity daemon across all supported RHEL releases
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium

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 0.2%
Patch available No
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
Poc
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

30
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +30
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

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)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_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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Vendor StatusVendor

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