Description
A flaw was found in FreeIPA. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit a vulnerability in the `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint by sending an arbitrarily large request body. This can cause the service to consume excessive memory, leading to memory exhaustion, degraded responsiveness, and a denial of service (DoS) condition.
Published: 2026-08-20
Score: 7.5 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Impact

The vulnerability in FreeIPA allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to send an arbitrarily large request body to the `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint. The server reads the entire payload before processing, which can cause the process to consume excessive amounts of memory. This leads to memory exhaustion, degraded responsiveness, and eventual service‑level denial of service. The flaw is categorized as an unbounded input resource consumption weakness (CWE‑770).

Affected Systems

Affected systems include Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 when the FreeIPA services are installed and active. The vulnerability exists in the FreeIPA web application layer that runs within an Apache HTTP Server instance on those operating systems. Any deployment that exposes the `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint to external networks is susceptible.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score of 7.5 indicates a high‑severity impact, and while the EPSS score is not available, it is inferred that exploitation is plausible for unauthenticated attackers by simply sending a large POST request. The vendor's update status is not stated; the issue remains in the CISA KEV catalogue as not listed, but system administrators should be alerted to the potential for service disruption. The likely attack vector is a remote client sending an oversized request body to the exposed `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint. Based on the description, it is inferred that no authentication or privileged access is required to trigger memory exhaustion and the resulting denial of service.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 20, 2026 at 22:33 UTC.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

To mitigate this issue, configure Apache to enforce a request-body limit for the `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint. This can be achieved by adding `LimitRequestBody` directive within the Apache configuration for IPA. For example, to limit the request body to 1MB, add `LimitRequestBody 1048576` to the relevant `<Location "/ipa/i18n_messages">` block or a broader `/ipa/*` location. A restart of the Apache HTTP Server (`httpd`) service is required for the changes to take effect, which may temporarily impact FreeIPA service availability. If a reverse proxy or load balancer is used, ensure it also enforces an equivalent body-size limit.


OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Add a `LimitRequestBody 1048576` directive to the Apache configuration for the `/ipa/i18n_messages` location (or a broader `/ipa/*` block) to restrict the request body to 1 MB.
  • Restart the Apache HTTP Server (`httpd`) service to apply the new configuration, keeping in mind that this restart may temporarily impact FreeIPA service availability.
  • If a reverse proxy or load balancer sits in front of FreeIPA, configure an equivalent request‐body size limit on the proxy to ensure no oversized payloads can reach the backend.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 20, 2026 at 22:33 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Freeipa
Freeipa freeipa
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:freeipa:freeipa:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Freeipa
Freeipa freeipa

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Important


Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in FreeIPA. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit a vulnerability in the `/ipa/i18n_messages` endpoint by sending an arbitrarily large request body. This can cause the service to consume excessive memory, leading to memory exhaustion, degraded responsiveness, and a denial of service (DoS) condition.
Title Ipa: freeipa: unauthenticated dos in `/ipa/i18n_messages` via unbounded request body read
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
Weaknesses CWE-770
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}


Subscriptions

Freeipa Freeipa
Redhat Enterprise Linux
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-20T15:38:29.582Z

Reserved: 2026-08-11T12:49:53.471Z

Link: CVE-2026-73198

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Analyzed

Published: 2026-08-20T11:16:21.687

Modified: 2026-08-24T18:19:56.893

Link: CVE-2026-73198

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

Publid Date: 2026-08-20T10:12:23Z

Links: CVE-2026-73198 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-08-21T21:15:50Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-770

    Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling