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Fencer Intel
medium 5.4

CVE-2018-16838 json

A flaw was found in sssd Group Policy Objects implementation.

published 7y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-8634

cvss
5.4
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in sssd Group Policy Objects implementation. When the GPO is not readable by SSSD due to a too strict permission settings on the server side, SSSD will allow all authenticated users to login instead of denying access.

Patch / fix

  • sssd Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.2.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16838

  • sssd Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.16.1-1ubuntu1.8

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16838

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • sssd RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-ad RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-ipa RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-kcm RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-dbus RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-krb5 RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • sssd-ldap RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7
  • python-sss RHEL 7 1.16.4-21.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2177RHSA-2019:2437RHSA-2019:3651

  • sssd SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 1.16.1-3.24.6
  • sssd SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4, SLED 12 SP4 +1 more 1.16.1-4.12.2
  • sssd SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 +1 more 1.13.4-34.37.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:1476-1SUSE-SU-2019:1480-1SUSE-SU-2019:1477-1

  • sssd openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.9.3-2.1
  • sssd openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 1.16.1-lp151.7.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:13446-1openSUSE-SU-2019:1589-1

Is CVE-2018-16838 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-16838 updated cvss 5.4

sssd: improper implementation of GPOs due to too restrictive permissions

  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) sssd-debuginfo 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-debugsource 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-ad-debuginfo 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-ipa-debuginfo 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-kcm-debuginfo 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-dbus-debuginfo 2.2.0-19.el8, +23 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) sssd 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-ad 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-ipa 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-kcm 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-dbus 2.2.0-19.el8, sssd-krb5 2.2.0-19.el8, +23 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3651
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) sssd 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ad 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ipa 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-kcm 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-dbus 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-krb5 1.16.4-21.el7, +21 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) python-libsss_nss_idmap 1.16.4-21.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) sssd 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ad 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ipa 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-kcm 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-dbus 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-krb5 1.16.4-21.el7, +21 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) python-libsss_nss_idmap 1.16.4-21.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) sssd 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ad 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ipa 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-kcm 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-dbus 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-krb5 1.16.4-21.el7, +22 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) python-libsss_nss_idmap 1.16.4-21.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) sssd 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ad 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-ipa 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-kcm 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-dbus 1.16.4-21.el7, sssd-krb5 1.16.4-21.el7, +22 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) sssd-debuginfo 1.16.4-21.el7, libipa_hbac-devel 1.16.4-21.el7, libsss_idmap-devel 1.16.4-21.el7, libsss_certmap-devel 1.16.4-21.el7, libsss_nss_idmap-devel 1.16.4-21.el7, libsss_simpleifp-devel 1.16.4-21.el7, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2177
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4 Hypervisor for RHEL 7 redhat-virtualization-host 4.3.5-20190722.0.el7_7, redhat-virtualization-host-image-update 4.3.5-20190722.0.el7_7 Red Hat RHEL 7-based RHEV-H for RHEV 4 (build requirements) imgbased 1.1.9-0.1.el7ev, python-imgbased 1.1.9-0.1.el7ev, ovirt-node-ng 4.3.5-0.20190717.0.el7ev, ovirt-node-ng-nodectl 4.3.5-0.20190717.0.el7ev, redhat-release-virtualization-host 4.3.5-2.el7ev, python2-ovirt-node-ng-nodectl 4.3.5-0.20190717.0.el7ev, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2437
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 sssd Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 sssd, sssd-ad, sssd-ipa, sssd-dbus, sssd-krb5, sssd-ldap, +19 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

1.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 5.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 3.0 5.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N

Affected products

  • [UNKNOWN] sssd

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-284 Improper Access Control
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.