Privilege escalation via fallback Kerberos principal mapping
Published Oct 9, 2025 · Updated Oct 9, 2025
Improper authorization in SSSD on AD-joined Linux systems allows remote authenticated users to impersonate privileged local accounts. When the SSSD localauth mapping does not resolve a principal, Kerberos falls back to an2ln and treats an attacker-controlled UPN or account name as a local username. Exploitation requires permission to modify userPrincipalName or sAMAccountName and an enabled GSSAPI or password authentication path.
Summary
What happened
Improper authorization in SSSD on AD-joined Linux systems allows remote authenticated users to impersonate privileged local accounts. When the SSSD localauth mapping does not resolve a principal, Kerberos falls back to an2ln and treats an attacker-controlled UPN or account name as a local username. Exploitation requires permission to modify userPrincipalName or sAMAccountName and an enabled GSSAPI or password authentication path.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-11561
- Published
- Oct 9, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 9, 2025
- Vendor
- 389 Directory Server
- Product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 9, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 9, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Affected versions are unavailable in this record. Check the vendor advisory for version and patch details.
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- sssd-spooffunctional · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo