---
id: CVE-2026-73196
title: >-
  Ipa: freeipa: authenticated dos in `otptoken-add` via unbounded otp key
  decoding/re-encoding
summary: >-
  A flaw was found in FreeIPA. A low-privilege authenticated user can exploit
  this vulnerability by submitting an oversized One-Time Password (OTP) key
  value. This oversized key is then decoded and re-encoded without proper size
  limits, co…
severity: medium
cvss: 4.3
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'
cvssSource: cna
cwe:
  - CWE-770
vendor: Red Hat
product: ipa
affected:
  - ipa (all versions)
  - ipa
  - ipa (all versions)
  - ipa (all versions)
  - ipa (all versions)
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-08-20T14:18:49.811170Z'
published: '2026-08-20'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T22:41:30.871Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-73196'
references:
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-73196'
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2474712'
    label: RHBZ#2474712
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00426
epssPercentile: 0.37057
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T23:41:31.944Z'
---

## Overview

A flaw was found in FreeIPA. A low-privilege authenticated user can exploit this vulnerability by submitting an oversized One-Time Password (OTP) key value. This oversized key is then decoded and re-encoded without proper size limits, consuming excessive CPU and memory resources. This can lead to a denial of service, degrading the availability of the IPA service.

## Affected

- `ipa (all versions)`
- `ipa`
- `ipa (all versions)`
- `ipa (all versions)`
- `ipa (all versions)`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

### Workarounds

To mitigate this issue, enforce conservative HTTP request-body limits on the `/ipa/session/json` endpoint to reject oversized payloads before they reach the vulnerable IPA parameter conversion. Additionally, if operationally feasible, restrict self-managed token creation to trusted users and implement monitoring or rate-limiting for repeated large authenticated requests. Changes to HTTP server configurations or FreeIPA permissions may require service restarts or reloads to take effect.