# 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.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 20 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-73196, GHSA-rvf3-5qrx-mrj3, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73196

## 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 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-73196?

It affects 2 products.


Products: 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.

## 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](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-2026-73196 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73196 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-2026-73196/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73196/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-73196
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73196
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-73196

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73196/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.