What is CVE-2026-14940?

CVE-2026-14940 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Directory Server 11, classified under Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2026-07-07.

How severe is CVE-2026-14940?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Red Hat Directory Server 11

CVE-2026-14940

A heap-buffer-overflow flaw was found in 389 Directory Server (389-ds-base). When normalizing a Distinguished Name (DN) that contains a legacy-quoted value encoding a multivalued nested Relative Distinguished Name (RDN), the server can write past the end of a heap allocation while sorting RDN attribute-value pairs. An unauthenticated remote attacker can trigger this condition by sending an LDAP operation whose DN reaches the DN normalization routine, such as a search with a crafted base DN. This can corrupt heap memory and may cause denial of service.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

EPSS: 0.003 (22.1th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-122 — Heap-based Buffer Overflow

References

secalert@redhat.com (x_refsource_REDHAT, vdb-entry, Vendor Advisory)
secalert@redhat.com (x_refsource_REDHAT, issue-tracking, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-14940?: CVE-2026-14940 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Directory Server 11, classified under Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2026-07-07.
How severe is CVE-2026-14940?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.