CVE-2026-68744: Sssd: sssd: nss responder uninitialized heap disclosure in initgroups reply

Published Jul 31, 2026
·
Updated

A flaw was found in SSSD. The sssnssprotocolfillinitgr() function in the NSS responder (src/responder/nss/nssprotocolgrent.c) pre-allocates the reply packet for all group entries using ssspacketgrow() but does not shrink the packet when groups are skipped (non-POSIX, incomplete, or filtered groups). ssspacketgrow() uses tallocreallocsize(), which does not zero-fill newly allocated memory. The trailing unwritten bytes therefore contain uninitialized heap data from the sssdnss process and are transmitted to the client at the grown packet length. A local attacker can exploit this by sending SSSNSSINITGR (0x0026) requests to the world-writable NSS responder socket (/var/lib/sss/pipes/nss), receiving uninitialized heap content in the reply tail. Through heap grooming (for example, a preceding getpwnam query), the leak can disclose other users' cached directory records and process heap pointers. The leaked data is limited to the sssdnss heap (directory-level information); credentials reside in separate sssdpam and sssdbe processes. Reported via PSIRTSUPT-20553 by BreachX Zero Day Labs.

Other sources

A flaw was found in SSSD. The sssnssprotocolfillinitgr() function in the NSS responder pre-allocates reply space for all group entries but does not shrink the packet when groups are skipped, causing uninitialized heap bytes to be transmitted to the client. A local attacker can exploit this to disclose cached directory data and heap layout information from the sssdnss process.

MITRE

Affected Software

7 affected components
sssd
Fedoraproject Sssd
redhat OpenShift Container Platform=4.0
redhat Enterprise Linux=7.0
redhat Enterprise Linux=8.0
redhat Enterprise Linux=9.0
redhat Enterprise Linux=10.0

Event History

Jul 31, 2026
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·12:31 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Aug 4, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·05:28 AM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·05:28 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·06:16 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-68744?

The severity of CVE-2026-68744 is low, rated at 3.3.

2

What does CVE-2026-68744 affect?

CVE-2026-68744 affects the System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) NSS responder.

3

How do I fix CVE-2026-68744?

To fix CVE-2026-68744, update SSSD to the latest version that addresses this flaw.

4

What is the risk associated with CVE-2026-68744?

CVE-2026-68744 has a risk rating of 18, indicating that it poses a low risk to systems.

5

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-68744?

CVE-2026-68744 is an uninitialized heap disclosure vulnerability in the SSSD NSS responder.

Contact

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