CVE-2026-73198
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.
Mitigation
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.
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 | 7.5 | N/A | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| 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 | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
When allocating resources without limits, an attacker could prevent other systems, applications, or processes from accessing the same type of resource. It can be easy for an attacker to consume many resources by rapidly making many requests or causing larger resources to be used than is needed.
Acknowledgements
This issue was discovered by Found by AISLE in partnership with Red Hat.
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