Red Hat Directory Server/Enterprise Linux 389-ds-base heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Red Hat Directory Server and Enterprise Linux. It has been classified as very critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component 389-ds-base. Performing a manipulation results in heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-16560. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Red Hat Directory Server and Enterprise Linux (unknown version). It has been classified as very critical. This affects an unknown code block of the component 389-ds-base. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A heap-buffer-overflow flaw was found in Directory Server (389-ds-base). When a DN contains a legacy-quoted value, the server won't close the heap allocation allowing another call to refer to the same memory pointer causing a denial of service or an arbitrary memory write operation.

The advisory is shared at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-16560 since 07/22/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/22/2026).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Directory Service Software

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• Directory Server
• Enterprise Linux

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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