CVE-2026-91926
Description
A flaw was found in gss-ntlmssp. A memory leak occurs in the NTLM target-info parser when a crafted NTLM CHALLENGE message contains duplicated string-valued AV_PAIR entries. The parser allocates memory for each string value but does not free the previous allocation when the same AV_PAIR type appears more than once, leaking the earlier allocation. A malicious or man-in-the-middle server can exploit this to cause gradual memory exhaustion on the client during NTLM authentication, leading to a denial of service.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as Low severity because exploitation requires the attacker to control or impersonate the NTLM server (or hold a man-in-the-middle position), and the resulting memory leak is bounded and gradual, requiring sustained repeated authentications to produce meaningful resource exhaustion. The vulnerability only affects the NTLM client (initiator) path; the server (acceptor) path is not affected. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 ships gssntlmssp and is affected. gssntlmssp was removed from RHEL 9 and later releases, so those products are not affected.
Mitigation
No mitigation is currently available that meets Red Hat Product Security's standards for usability, deployment, applicability, or stability.
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 Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.7 | N/A | 3.7 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Red Hat CVSS v3 Score Explanation
Network-reachable memory leak on NTLM initiator from malicious server CHALLENGE; requires MITM or rogue server position; only availability impact (slow memory exhaustion), no confidentiality or integrity impact
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Instability; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
Most memory leaks result in general product reliability problems, but if an attacker can intentionally trigger a memory leak, the attacker might be able to launch a denial of service attack (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected program behavior resulting from a low memory condition.
Other
Technical Impact: Reduce Performance
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Chase Bevan-Thomas (cbev0x) (Independent security researcher) for reporting this issue.
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