# CVE-2026-13097: Privilege escalation in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

> Attackers with LDAP write access can escalate privileges by manipulating Kerberos principal names to impersonate privileged services, leading to domain compromise.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 26 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-13097, GHSA-q4ph-46qc-4w6x, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-13097

## What is CVE-2026-13097?

CVE-2026-13097 is a high-severity vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 20 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A privilege escalation flaw was found in FreeIPA. The uniqueness constraint enforced on Kerberos principal name attributes in the 389-ds directory server does not properly account for equivalent representations of the same principal name, allowing a user with sufficient LDAP write privileges to create a service principal that impersonates an existing privileged one. This can lead to unauthorized acquisition of Kerberos service tickets for sensitive services, potentially resulting in full domain compromise.

Weakness: CWE-706 (Use of Incorrectly-Resolved Name or Reference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-13097?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Freeipa Freeipa, Redhat Enterprise Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-13097?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-13097 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-13097 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux

- [CVE-2015-5284](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5284/): Information disclosure in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-11861](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-11861/): Freeipa: idm: ipa: freeipa: obtaining tgs with impersonating cname through trust relationships (critical 9.6)
- [CVE-2024-2698](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-2698/): Freeipa: delegation rules allow a proxy service to impersonate any user to access another target service (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2012-5631](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5631/): Information disclosure in ipa (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-11191](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11191/): Security feature bypass in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-13097 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-13097 is a high-severity vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 20 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-13097 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Redhat Enterprise Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-13097/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-13097/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-13097
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-13097
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-13097

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-13097/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.