Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-18355 · published 7 September 2026
CVE-2026-18355: A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in the SASL I/O layer of 389 Directory Server (389-ds-base).
A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in the SASL I/O layer of 389 Directory Server (389-ds-base). In sasl_io_start_packet(), the wrapped-record length read from the wire is validated only against an upper bound. A small wire length (0, 1, or 2) produces an encrypted_buffer_count below the already-consumed encrypted_buffer_offset, causing an unsigned subtraction underflow in sasl_io_read_packet(). PR_Recv is then requested to read approximately 4 GiB into a 1024-byte heap buffer, resulting in a heap buffer overflow with attacker-controlled content. After a successful SASL bind with integrity protection (SSF > 0), a remote authenticated attacker can cause a denial of service or potentially achieve remote code execution. This flaw is distinct from CVE-2026-11774, whose fix only guards against upper-bound overflow.
Description
A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in the SASL I/O layer of 389 Directory Server (389-ds-base). In sasl_io_start_packet(), the wrapped-record length read from the wire is validated only against an upper bound. A small wire length (0, 1, or 2) produces an encrypted_buffer_count below the already-consumed encrypted_buffer_offset, causing an unsigned subtraction underflow in sasl_io_read_packet(). PR_Recv is then requested to read approximately 4 GiB into a 1024-byte heap buffer, resulting in a heap buffer overflow with attacker-controlled content. After a successful SASL bind with integrity protection (SSF > 0), a remote authenticated attacker can cause a denial of service or potentially achieve remote code execution. This flaw is distinct from CVE-2026-11774, whose fix only guards against upper-bound overflow.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
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Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-18355), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.
