# CVE-2026-112322: MIT Kerberos 5 denial of service in kadmind AUTH_GSSAPI cleanup

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-112322-clean-client-in-lib-rpc-svc-auth-gssapi-c-in-mit-kerberos-5-aka  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-11-09. Updated: 2026-11-09  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-112322 · Severity: high · CVSS 7.5 · Published 2026-11-09

MIT Kerberos 5 is used to authenticate users and services in enterprise networks. The kadmind administration daemon contains a flaw in its cleanup routine that causes it to waste CPU cycles when handling many client connections, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to exhaust server resources and disrupt administrative operations.

Technologies: [Mit Kerberos 5](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/kerberos-5). Vendors: [Mit](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/mit).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-112322 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-112322 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-112322?** High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.5, published 9 November 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** MIT Kerberos 5.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-112322?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Restrict network access to kadmind to trusted hosts, or disable it in favor of the kadmin.local server-side command-line tool for administration operations if possible. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-112322 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-112322?** Check whether you run Mit Kerberos 5. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## How to fix


Restrict network access to kadmind to trusted hosts, or disable it in favor of the kadmin.local server-side command-line tool for administration operations if possible.

## Technical details

The clean_client() function in lib/rpc/svc_auth_gssapi.c has an algorithmic inefficiency that restarts scanning the client list from the beginning after each entry removal, resulting in quadratic time complexity. A remote attacker without authentication can accumulate AUTH_GSSAPI client entries to trigger excessive CPU consumption in kadmind, achieving denial of service.

## Affected products

- MIT Kerberos 5

## Timeline

- 2026-11-09: disclosed

## References

- [https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/](https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/)
- [https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-112322](https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-112322)

## Related threats

- [MIT Kerberos 5 denial of service in ASN.1 SEQUENCE OF decoding](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-119079-decode-sequence-of-in-lib-krb5-asn-1-asn1-encode-c-in-mit)
- [MIT Kerberos 5 kadmind memory exhaustion in AUTH_GSSAPI](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-112323-the-auth-gssapi-handler-in-lib-rpc-svc-auth-gssapi-c-in-mit)
- [MIT Kerberos memory exhaustion in AUTH_GSSAPI handler](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-112321-the-auth-gssapi-handler-in-lib-rpc-svc-auth-gssapi-c-in-mit)
- [MIT Kerberos 5 memory exhaustion via GSS-RPC authentication context leak](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-112320-the-gss-rpc-transport-layer-in-mit-kerberos-5-aka-krb5-1-4-and)
- [MIT Kerberos 5 GSS-RPC unbounded memory allocation in kadmind](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-112319-the-gss-rpc-layer-in-mit-kerberos-5-aka-krb5-does-not-enforce)