CVE-2026-73196 Ipa: freeipa: authenticated dos in `otptoken-add` via unbounded otp key decoding/re-encoding
An authenticated low-privilege user can cause a denial of service in FreeIPA by submitting an oversized OTP key, leading to excessive resource consumption.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-73196?
CVE-2026-73196 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 20 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official 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.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-73196?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Freeipa Freeipa, Redhat Enterprise Linux.
How do I fix CVE-2026-73196?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-73196 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-73196 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73196 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux
- CVE-2015-5284 Information disclosure in n/a
- CVE-2026-11861 Freeipa: idm: ipa: freeipa: obtaining tgs with impersonating cname through trust relationships
- CVE-2024-2698 Freeipa: delegation rules allow a proxy service to impersonate any user to access another target service
- CVE-2012-5631 Information disclosure in ipa
- CVE-2017-11191 Security feature bypass in n/a
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73196, GHSA-rvf3-5qrx-mrj3, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73196.