📄 Description (English)
A flaw was found in 389 Directory Server. The Content Synchronization persistent search plugin allows unbounded memory growth when an authenticated client stops reading sync responses, enabling denial of service. Additional race conditions in plugin thread lifecycle can cause crashes during connection teardown or shutdown.
🤖 AI Executive Summary
CVE-2026-11611 affects 389 Directory Server's Content Synchronization plugin, allowing authenticated users to trigger unbounded memory growth and denial of service by halting sync response consumption. Race conditions in plugin thread lifecycle can cause server crashes during connection teardown or shutdown. While no public exploit exists and patches are unavailable, the vulnerability poses significant risk to directory services infrastructure used across Saudi organizations for authentication and identity management.
📄 Description (Arabic)
🤖 AI Intelligence Analysis Analyzed: Jun 8, 2026 22:07
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Impact Assessment
This vulnerability directly impacts Saudi organizations relying on 389 Directory Server for LDAP-based authentication and identity management. Primary affected sectors include: Banking (SAMA-regulated institutions using directory services for access control), Government agencies (NCA, CITC infrastructure), Healthcare (MOH systems), Telecommunications (STC, Mobily directory services), and Energy sector (ARAMCO authentication systems). The vulnerability enables authenticated denial of service attacks, potentially disrupting critical authentication infrastructure and causing service unavailability across dependent applications.
🏢 Affected Saudi Sectors
Banking and Financial Services
Government and Public Administration
Healthcare
Energy and Utilities
Telecommunications
Education
Large Enterprise IT Infrastructure
🎯 MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
T1499 - Endpoint Denial of Service (resource exhaustion via memory growth)
T1499.004 - Application Exhaustion Flood (sync response flooding)
T1021.002 - Remote Services: SSH (if directory server accessed remotely)
T1078 - Valid Accounts (authenticated user exploitation)
T1526 - Reconnaissance (directory service enumeration)
⚖️ Saudi Risk Score (AI)
6.8
/ 10.0
🔧 Remediation Steps (English)
Immediate Actions:
1. Identify all 389 Directory Server instances in your environment and document their criticality
2. Restrict Content Synchronization plugin access to trusted internal networks only
3. Implement connection rate limiting and timeout policies on directory servers
4. Monitor memory consumption on affected servers for anomalous growth patterns
Compensating Controls:
1. Disable Content Synchronization persistent search plugin if not actively used
2. Implement network-level access controls restricting sync client connections
3. Configure aggressive connection timeouts (30-60 seconds) for idle sync connections
4. Deploy memory usage alerts with thresholds at 70-80% capacity
5. Implement connection pooling limits to prevent resource exhaustion
Detection Rules:
1. Alert on memory growth >100MB/minute on directory server processes
2. Monitor for abandoned sync connections (no data transfer >5 minutes)
3. Track abnormal thread creation/destruction patterns in plugin lifecycle
4. Log all Content Synchronization plugin initialization and termination events
5. Alert on server restart/crash events correlated with sync plugin activity
Patching Strategy:
1. Monitor Red Hat and 389 Project security advisories for patch availability
2. Prepare test environment for immediate patch deployment upon release
3. Establish maintenance windows for production directory server updates
🔧 خطوات المعالجة (العربية)
الإجراءات الفورية:
1. حدد جميع مثيلات خادم 389 Directory Server في بيئتك وتوثيق أهميتها
2. قيد الوصول إلى مكون المزامنة المحتوى على الشبكات الداخلية الموثوقة فقط
3. تطبيق تحديد معدل الاتصال وسياسات المهلة الزمنية على خوادم الدليل
4. مراقبة استهلاك الذاكرة على الخوادم المتأثرة للكشف عن أنماط النمو الشاذة
الضوابط التعويضية:
1. تعطيل مكون البحث المستمر للمزامنة المحتوى إذا لم يكن قيد الاستخدام النشط
2. تطبيق عناصر تحكم الوصول على مستوى الشبكة لتقييد اتصالات عميل المزامنة
3. تكوين انتهاء الاتصال العدواني (30-60 ثانية) لاتصالات المزامنة الخاملة
4. نشر تنبيهات استخدام الذاكرة بعتبات بنسبة 70-80% من السعة
5. تطبيق حدود تجميع الاتصالات لمنع استنزاف الموارد
قواعد الكشف:
1. تنبيه على نمو الذاكرة >100MB/دقيقة على عمليات خادم الدليل
2. مراقبة الاتصالات المهجورة للمزامنة (بدون نقل بيانات >5 دقائق)
3. تتبع أنماط إنشاء/حذف الخيوط غير الطبيعية في دورة حياة المكون
4. تسجيل جميع أحداث تهيئة وإنهاء مكون البحث المستمر للمزامنة
5. تنبيه على أحداث إعادة تشغيل/توقف الخادم المرتبطة بنشاط مكون المزامنة
📋 Regulatory Compliance Mapping
🟢 NCA ECC 2024
A.5.1.1 - Information Security Policies (access control to directory services)
A.6.1.1 - Internal Organization (authentication infrastructure protection)
A.8.1.1 - Asset Management (directory server inventory and monitoring)
A.12.3.1 - Segregation of Networks (restricting sync plugin access)
A.12.6.1 - Management of Technical Vulnerabilities (vulnerability monitoring)
🔵 SAMA CSF
ID.AM-2 - Asset Management (identify and track directory servers)
PR.AC-1 - Access Control Policy (restrict sync plugin access)
PR.PT-1 - Security Architecture (network segmentation for directory services)
DE.CM-1 - Detection and Analysis (monitor memory and connection anomalies)
RS.MI-2 - Incident Response (prepare for DoS incidents)
🟡 ISO 27001:2022
A.5.1 - Management Direction (information security policy for authentication systems)
A.6.1 - Internal Organization (responsibility for directory service security)
A.8.1 - Asset Management (inventory of directory servers)
A.12.3 - Segregation of Networks (network controls for sync access)
A.12.6 - Management of Technical Vulnerabilities (patch management process)
🟣 PCI DSS v4.0.1
Requirement 2.1 - Change default passwords (if applicable to directory admin accounts)
Requirement 6.2 - Security patches (vulnerability management)
Requirement 10.2 - Logging (monitor directory server activity)