CVE-2026-73196
Received Received - Intake

FreeIPA OTP Key Handling Denial of Service

Publication date: 2026-08-20

Last updated on: 2026-08-20

Assigner: redhat-SADP

Description
A flaw was found in FreeIPA. A low-privilege authenticated user can exploit this vulnerability by submitting an oversized One-Time Password (OTP) key value. This oversized key is then decoded and re-encoded without proper size limits, consuming excessive CPU and memory resources. This can lead to a denial of service, degrading the availability of the IPA service.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-20
Last Modified
2026-08-20
Generated
2026-08-20
AI Q&A
2026-08-20
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-73196
EUVD
EUVD-2026-63241

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
red_hat freeipa ipa-4.13.1-3.el10

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-770 The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in FreeIPA allows a low-privilege authenticated user to submit an oversized One-Time Password (OTP) key value. The system decodes and re-encodes this key without size limits, consuming excessive CPU and memory resources. This leads to a denial of service by degrading the availability of the IPA service.

Detection Guidance

Monitor for unusually high CPU or memory usage on FreeIPA servers, particularly during OTP token creation requests. Check HTTP server logs for large payloads sent to the /ipa/session/json endpoint. Look for repeated failed or slow responses from the IPA API when users attempt to add OTP tokens.

Impact Analysis

An attacker with low privileges can exploit this to consume server resources, causing service slowdowns or outages. This affects availability for all users relying on FreeIPA services, especially if repeated or parallel requests are made.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily impacts service availability by causing resource exhaustion through CPU and memory consumption. It does not directly affect confidentiality or integrity of data, which are key concerns for GDPR and HIPAA. However, prolonged service degradation could indirectly impact compliance by disrupting access to critical systems or data processing operations.

Mitigation Strategies

Enforce conservative HTTP request-body limits on the /ipa/session/json endpoint to block oversized payloads. Restrict self-managed OTP token creation to trusted users only. Implement rate-limiting for large authenticated requests. Apply these changes to your HTTP server configuration and restart or reload the FreeIPA service.

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