389-ds-base: 389-ds-base: starttls plaintext-buffer retention allows on-path attacker to forge an ldap client's authentication result

Summary

CVECVE-2026-86345
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerredhat
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-10-02 00:17:04 UTC
Updated2026-10-07 21:17:20 UTC
DescriptionA flaw was found in 389-ds-base. The server does not discard plaintext bytes already buffered from a client connection when negotiating StartTLS, allowing an on-path attacker to inject a crafted LDAP message that is processed after the TLS upgrade and whose response is delivered to the client in place of the client's own pending operation's response, due to messageID collision. This can cause a client application to treat a failed authentication (bind) attempt as successful.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9 CRITICAL from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.003820000 probability, percentile 0.300750000 (date 2026-10-07)

Problem Types: CWE-923 | CWE-923 Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary9CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNACVSS9CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

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

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 11 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 11 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Directory Server 12 Not specified 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
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Not specified Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-86345 [email protected] access.redhat.com
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi [email protected] bugzilla.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 xclow3n for reporting this issue. (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-09-02T05:13:00.000ZReported to Red Hat.
CNA2026-10-01T00:00:00.000ZMade public.

Workarounds

CNA: Disable StartTLS on port 389 and require ldaps:// (port 636) instead, which has no cleartext prefix to inject into. No configuration-only mitigation fully closes the issue on port 389 while StartTLS remains enabled.

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