SSSD PAM Responder UAF Crash via YubiKey Manipulation DOS & Possible Priv Esc
CVE-2026-12610 Published on June 30, 2026

Sssd: use-after-free crash in sssd' 'sssd_pam' process
A flaw was found in sssd. When authenticating with a YubiKey, the SSSD PAM responder can crash due to a use-after-free vulnerability, where a memory pointer is incorrectly handled. A local attacker could exploit this flaw by manipulating smartcard or YubiKey contents, leading to a denial of service that disrupts authentication. This vulnerability also presents a potential for privilege escalation, although it is difficult to exploit.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-12610 is exploitable with local system access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
HIGH
Privileges Required:
HIGH
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Timeline

Reported to Red Hat.

Made public.

Weakness Type

What is a Dangling pointer Vulnerability?

The program dereferences a pointer that contains a location for memory that was previously valid, but is no longer valid. When a program releases memory, but it maintains a pointer to that memory, then the memory might be re-allocated at a later time. If the original pointer is accessed to read or write data, then this could cause the program to read or modify data that is in use by a different function or process. Depending on how the newly-allocated memory is used, this could lead to a denial of service, information exposure, or code execution.

CVE-2026-12610 has been classified to as a Dangling pointer vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-12610

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 
Red Hat Hummingbird
 
Red Hat Openshift
 

Affected Versions

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Red Hat Hardened Images: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4: