# CVE-2026-73198: Ipa: freeipa: unauthenticated dos in `/ipa/i18n_messages` via unbounded request body read

> Unauthenticated attackers can cause denial of service in FreeIPA by sending large request bodies to the i18n_messages endpoint, exhausting server memory.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **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-2026-73198, GHSA-p44q-gpjc-mgm9, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-73198

## What is CVE-2026-73198?

CVE-2026-73198 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 20 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official 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.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-73198?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Freeipa Freeipa, Redhat Enterprise Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-73198?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-73198 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73198 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-2026-73198 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-73198 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 20 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-73198 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-2026-73198/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73198/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-73198
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73198
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-73198

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-73198/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.