CVE-2026-104988

Description

A flaw was found in Dogtag PKI (pki-core). The CMCAuthForEST authentication plugin fails open when an EST fullcmc enrollment request is submitted via BasicAuth without an end-user TLS client certificate. The SSL_CLIENT_CERT session attribute retains the EST subsystem's agent certificate, which causes downstream authorization checks to treat the request as agent-privileged. An authenticated EST user can exploit this to obtain CA-signed certificates with arbitrary subject names.

Statement

This vulnerability is rated as having Important impact because authenticated users can abuse Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST) endpoints to obtain unauthorized, valid certificates for arbitrary identities, bypassing profile constraints and CA authorization controls. Exploitation requires EST services to be configured and accessible with HTTP Basic authentication enabled. Environments that do not expose EST fullcmc enrollment profiles or that enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) client certificates are not susceptible to this mis-issuance flaw.

Mitigation

Disable basic authentication for all users. This can be done by removing the field "UserPasswords" for the user entries in the EST DS server.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score8.1N/A8.1
Attack VectorNetworkN/ANetwork
Attack ComplexityLowN/ALow
Privileges RequiredLowN/ALow
User InteractionNoneN/ANone
ScopeUnchangedN/AUnchanged
ConfidentialityHighN/AHigh
Integrity ImpactHighN/AHigh
Availability ImpactNoneN/ANone

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Access Control

Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

This weakness can allow an attacker to access resources which are not otherwise accessible without proper authentication.

Frequently Asked Questions

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