CVE-2026-115221 in FreeIPA
Summary
by MITRE • 10/23/2026
A flaw was found in FreeIPA. An improper authorization check allows an authenticated host to retrieve and revoke digital certificates assigned to other users or services. This issue occurs because FreeIPA verifies ownership solely by matching the host name to the certificate's subject Common Name (CN), without confirming actual ownership in the directory service. Consequently, an enrolled host can disrupt services by revoking certificates belonging to other entities.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/23/2026
The vulnerability identified within FreeIPA represents a critical failure in identity and access management logic, specifically concerning the authorization checks governing digital certificate lifecycle operations. This flaw allows any authenticated host entity registered with the directory service to perform unauthorized actions against certificates assigned to distinct users or services. The core technical deficiency lies in the verification mechanism used by the system when processing requests for certificate retrieval or revocation. Instead of performing a robust ownership validation that cross-references the requesting principal's identity against an explicit assignment record within the directory database, FreeIPA relies exclusively on string matching between the host name and the Common Name (CN) field present in the certificate subject. This approach assumes that if the CN matches the requester's hostname, then the requester is the legitimate owner of the certificate. However, this assumption is fundamentally flawed because it ignores the possibility of namespace collisions or misconfigurations where a service account might share a name pattern with a host, or more critically, fails to enforce strict separation between identity types and their associated resources.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability enables an attacker who has compromised or gained access to any enrolled host within the FreeIPA domain to disrupt critical infrastructure services. By leveraging the improper authorization check, the malicious actor can retrieve sensitive digital certificates belonging to other entities, potentially exposing private keys if they are stored in a retrievable format alongside the public certificate. More severely, the ability to revoke these certificates allows for a denial of service attack against specific users or services. When a critical service's certificate is revoked by an unauthorized host, that service will fail authentication checks with its clients, leading to immediate unavailability and potential data loss if backups are not readily accessible. This impacts the integrity and availability pillars of the CIA triad, undermining trust in the identity infrastructure that secures internal communications across the organization.
This vulnerability aligns closely with CWE-284 Improper Access Control, as it involves a failure to enforce proper authorization policies for specific actions on protected resources. Furthermore, it relates to CWE-613 Insufficient Session Expiration and CWE-798 Use of Hard-coded Credentials if the host credentials themselves are compromised, but primarily it reflects a logic error in access control decisions. In terms of MITRE ATT&CK framework mapping, this behavior facilitates lateral movement and privilege escalation within an Active Directory or identity management environment. An attacker could use this flaw to perform Resource Hijacking by taking over service identities or execute Impact techniques such as Service Stop via certificate revocation. The lack of strict ownership verification means that the principle of least privilege is violated, allowing broad permissions based on superficial name matching rather than explicit assignment.
To mitigate this risk, immediate action must be taken to patch FreeIPA to versions where the authorization logic has been corrected to verify actual ownership in the directory service rather than relying solely on Common Name matching. Administrators should also review their current certificate assignments and host registrations to ensure there are no ambiguous naming conventions that could exacerbate similar issues even after a patch is applied. Implementing stricter separation of duties between host entities and user/service accounts can further reduce the attack surface. Additionally, monitoring logs for unusual patterns of certificate retrieval or revocation requests from hosts accessing resources outside their expected operational scope can help detect exploitation attempts in real-time until patches are fully deployed across the environment.