High [CVE-2026-11774 +1] 389-ds-base: 389-ds-base: heap buffer overflow via sasl wrapped-record length lower-bound underflow in sasl_io_start_packet
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-11774 and CVE-2026-18355 affecting Red Hat Directory Server 11, Red Hat Directory Server 12, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.
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Summary
A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in the SASL I/O layer of 389 Directory Server (389-ds-base). In sasl_io_start_packet(), the wrapped-record length read from the wire is validated only against an upper bound.
A small wire length (0, 1, or 2) produces an encrypted_buffer_count below the already-consumed encrypted_buffer_offset, causing an unsigned subtraction underflow in sasl_io_read_packet(). PR_Recv is then requested to read approximately 4 GiB into a 1024-byte heap buffer, resulting in a heap buffer overflow with attacker-controlled content.
After a successful SASL bind with integrity protection (SSF > 0), a remote authenticated attacker can cause a denial of service or potentially achieve remote code execution. This flaw is distinct from CVE-2026-11774, whose fix only guards against upper-bound overflow.
Red Hat rates this issue as Important. After a successful SASL bind with integrity protection (SSF > 0), an authenticated attacker can send a SASL wrapped record whose length prefix is unusually small.
The SASL I/O layer validates that length only against an upper size limit, so when it computes how many more bytes to read it can underflow and write past the end of its receive buffer with attacker-controlled data. This flaw is independent of CVE-2026-11774, which only rejected near-maximum length values; that fix does not cover the lower-bound case.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- Red Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update the affected package as soon as possible.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
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