A flaw was found in 389 Directory Server. The SMD5 password storage plugin performs unsigned integer underflow when computing salt length from a crafted password hash shorter than 16 bytes, causing a buffer over-read that crashes the LDAP server during authentication.
Disable nsslapd-allow-hashed-passwords (default: off) to prevent non-DM users from setting pre-hashed passwords. Restrict Directory Manager credentials; limit DM access to management networks and audit DM operations via nsslapd-auditlog. Monitor for suspicious userPassword modifications. Migrate stored passwords from {SMD5} to {PBKDF2_SHA256} to eliminate the vulnerable code path for existing accounts.