Gssproxy: gssproxy: null pointer dereference in gssx_init_sec_context crashes daemon
Impact
A null pointer dereference vulnerability in gssproxy causes the daemon to crash when a GSSX_INIT_SEC_CONTEXT request is received without a target_name field. This can be triggered by any local user, resulting in a denial of service. The affected products include Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10.
Summarized by @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast. Verify details against the original sources.The request requires no authentication, allowing any local user to crash the gssproxy daemon via its Unix socket.
What to do
There is no way to fully mitigate this vulnerability without applying a code fix. The gssproxy Unix socket must be world-accessible for normal operation, and the default configuration accepts connections from any local user.
As a partial workaround, administrators can add "Restart=on-failure" to the gssproxy systemd unit to enable automatic restarts after a crash. This does not prevent the crash but limits the denial-of-service window. Note that a persistent attacker can still outpace the restart cycle.
Affected packages
Affected products
Vendor version evidence. Product records are separate from automatic dependency matching.
Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
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Red Hat · redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
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Other versions: affected
Product identifiers (CPE)
cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4Original source description
A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability was found in gssproxy. When a GSSX_INIT_SEC_CONTEXT request is received with the target_name field absent, the daemon dereferences the resulting NULL pointer and crashes. The request requires no authentication, allowing any local user to crash the gssproxy daemon via its Unix socket. The daemon does not automatically restart, resulting in a persistent denial of service that also affects dependent services such as Kerberized NFS and IdM.
Inside the record
Evidence available
Describes the evidence in this view, not whether the product is safe.
Original records
CVE-2026-116497View the latest unmodified CVE JSON from the official source. It may be newer than this imported page.
cve.new JSON →Underlying weaknesses
The source’s classification of what caused the vulnerability.
Contributing organizations · 2
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Additional data publisher
What changed
Follow changesLarge field values are marked as truncated previews. Original source snapshots remain retained.