CVE-2026-104042 Red Hat CVE debrief

Who should care

System administrators and security teams responsible for systems using sssd, especially those with local access, should assess exposure and implement mitigations. This includes reviewing and updating sssd configurations, monitoring for unusual PAM requests, and verifying system logs for potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability could lead to potential Denial of Service (DoS) and impact system availability and security.

Why it matters

CVE-2026-104042 is a medium-severity vulnerability in sssd that can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via an out-of-bounds read in the PAM responder. System administrators and security teams should assess exposure, especially for systems with local access, and implement mitigations such as reviewing and updating sssd configurations, monitoring for unusual PAM requests, and verifying system logs for potential exploitation attempts.

• Potential Denial of Service (DoS) for systems using sssd
• Need for verification of affected versions and remediation steps
• Importance of monitoring for unusual PAM requests
• Potential impact on system availability and security

Technical summary

A flaw in sssd allows a local attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by sending a crafted PAM request with a zero-length authentication token, leading to an out-of-bounds read and crash of the PAM responder. This vulnerability is a medium-severity issue and affects systems using sssd, especially those with local access. System administrators and security teams should assess exposure and implement mitigations such as reviewing and updating sssd configurations, monitoring for unusual PAM requests, and verifying system logs for potential exploitation attempts.

Defensive priority

Medium priority for systems using sssd, especially those with local access

Recommended defensive actions

• Review and update sssd configurations to limit local access
• Implement monitoring for unusual PAM requests
• Verify system logs for potential exploitation attempts
• Confirm whether affected product deployments exist in managed environments and assign an owner for follow-up
• Plan vendor-supported updates or mitigations through normal change control where exposure is confirmed
• Review compensating controls for exposed systems while remediation is scheduled and verified
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review

Evidence notes

The CVE record and source item provide details on the vulnerability. Specific version information and remediation steps are not provided in the corpus. Defenders should verify affected versions, review sssd configurations, and monitor for unusual PAM requests. The CVE Program record (CVE-2026-104042) and NIST NVD detail page offer official vulnerability assessments.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.