CVE-2011-3226
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedOpen Directory in Apple Mac OS X 10.7 before 10.7.2, when an LDAPv3 server is used with RFC 2307 or custom mappings, allows remote attackers to bypass the password requirement by leveraging lack of an AuthenticationAuthority attribute for a user account.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceOpen Directory in Mac OS X 10.7.x before 10.7.2 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability when configured to use an LDAPv3 server with RFC 2307 or custom attribute mappings. The vulnerability stems from the lack of a required AuthenticationAuthority attribute for user accounts in the LDAP directory, allowing remote attackers to bypass password authentication entirely.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 10.7.0= 10.7.1= 10.7.0= 10.7.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check the Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers' or 'system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType' to identify the exact OS versionAffected if The version is 10.7.0 or 10.7.1 (client or Server)
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Verify Open Directory LDAP configurationOpen Directory Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices/Directory Utility.app) or check /Library/Preferences/com.apple.open_directory.plist for LDAPv3 configurationAffected if Open Directory is configured to use an LDAPv3 server as an authentication source
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Confirm LDAP attribute mapping typeInspect the LDAPv3 configuration for the attribute mapping schema - look for RFC 2307 or custom mapping in the LDAP plug-in configurationAffected if The LDAP configuration uses RFC 2307 or custom attribute mappings (not default Apple schema)
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Inspect LDAP user entries for AuthenticationAuthorityQuery the LDAP directory for user accounts using ldapsearch or dscl - query the AuthenticationAuthority attribute for each user accountAffected if User accounts in the LDAP directory lack the AuthenticationAuthority attribute or have it empty/missing
A user is affected if running Mac OS X 10.7.0 or 10.7.1 with Open Directory configured to use LDAPv3 with RFC 2307/custom mappings, where LDAP user entries are missing the AuthenticationAuthority attribute.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataEnsure all user entries in the LDAP directory contain a properly populated AuthenticationAuthority attribute, and upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7.2 or later which contains Apple's fix for this vulnerability.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-3226 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-3226 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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