389-ds-base: 389-ds-base: sasl plain authentication allows privilege escalation to directory manager via stale identity in cyrus sasl auxiliary property

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-18922
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerredhat
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-09-07 15:17:31 UTC
Updated2026-09-08 08:17:10 UTC
DescriptionA flaw was found in 389 Directory Server. During SASL PLAIN authentication, a stale identity carried in a Cyrus SASL auxiliary property from a prior failed bind attempt can be installed on a connection following a subsequent, unrelated successful bind, regardless of which SASL mechanism completes that second bind. An attacker can send a SASL PLAIN bind as cn=Directory Manager with an incorrect password, then complete a SASL ANONYMOUS bind on the same connection, causing the server to grant Directory Manager authority without any valid credentials. A variant using a valid low-privileged account's own successful bind instead of an anonymous one is also possible.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.8 CRITICAL from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-287 | CWE-287 Improper Authentication

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary9.8CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNACVSS9.8CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 11.7 E4S For RHEL 8 unaffected 8080020260903102346.f969626e * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 11.9 For RHEL 8 unaffected 8100020260904171440.37ed7c03 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 12.2 E4S For RHEL 9 unaffected 9020020260903155914.1674d574 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 12.4 E4S For RHEL 9 unaffected 9040020260903102623.1674d574 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 unaffected 0:3.2.0-10.el10_2 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support unaffected 0:3.0.6-21.el10_0 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Lifecycle Support - EXTENSION unaffected 0:1.2.11.15-97.el6_10.1 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support unaffected 0:1.3.11.1-15.el7_9 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 unaffected 8100020260904155442.25e700aa * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support unaffected 8040020260901171549.96015a92 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On unaffected 8040020260901171549.96015a92 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support unaffected 8060020260901145727.824efc52 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On unaffected 8060020260901145727.824efc52 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Telecommunications Update Service unaffected 8080020260831180218.6dbb3803 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Update Services For SAP Solutions unaffected 8080020260831180218.6dbb3803 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 unaffected 0:2.8.0-10.el9_8 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services For SAP Solutions unaffected 0:2.2.4-22.el9_2 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Update Services For SAP Solutions unaffected 0:2.4.5-29.el9_4 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 Extended Update Support unaffected 0:2.6.1-24.el9_6 * rpm Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 12 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 13 Not specified Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64781 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64778 [email protected] access.redhat.com
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi [email protected] bugzilla.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64779 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64780 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64783 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64776 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64784 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64793 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64771 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64792 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64804 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64785 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64789 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-18922 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64791 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64790 [email protected] access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64811 [email protected] access.redhat.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Red Hat would like to thank Chris Jarrett-Davies (OpenAI Security Research) for reporting this issue. (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-07-30T09:58:58.000ZReported to Red Hat.
CNA2026-09-07T12:33:00.000ZMade public.

Workarounds

CNA: Administrators can restrict nsslapd-allowed-sasl-mechanisms to only the mechanisms actually required (e.g. GSSAPI, EXTERNAL, GSS-SPNEGO), excluding PLAIN. Since the exploit chain requires the first bind attempt to be a failed SASL PLAIN bind as cn=Directory Manager, removing PLAIN from the allowed mechanism list prevents that step entirely — this blocks both the originally reported variant (valid low-privileged account) and the zero-credential SASL ANONYMOUS variant, since both depend on the same initial PLAIN bind to plant the stale identity.

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