CVE-2026-86345 PUBLISHED

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

Assigner: redhat
Reserved: 07.09.2026 Published: 01.10.2026 Updated: 02.10.2026

A 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.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 9

Product Status

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Directory Server 11
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Directory Server 11
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Directory Server 12
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Directory Server 12
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Directory Server 13
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Versions Default: unknown
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Versions Default: unknown
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Versions Default: affected

Workarounds

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.

Credits

  • Red Hat would like to thank xclow3n for reporting this issue.

References

Problem Types

  • Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints CWE