Certificate SystemApplication · Redhat
CVE-2013-1886
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 · uneditedFormat string vulnerability in the token processing system (pki-tps) in Red Hat Certificate System (RHCS) 8.1 and possibly Dogtag Certificate System 9 and 10 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via format string specifiers in unspecified vectors, related to viewing certificates.
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 · moderate confidenceFormat string vulnerability in the pki-tps (token processing) component of Red Hat Certificate System allows remote authenticated users to inject format string specifiers (%s, %x, %n, etc.) when viewing certificates. This can be processed by an unprotected printf-style function, enabling stack manipulation for potential arbitrary code execution or denial of service via crash.
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
Certificate SystemApplication
= 8.1
Dogtag Certificate SystemApplication
= 9.0= 10.0CVSS 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
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/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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Identify installed Certificate System productRun 'rpm -qa | grep -iE "dogtag|redhat-certificate-system|pki-tps"' to list installed Red Hat Certificate System or Dogtag packagesAffected if No Red Hat Certificate System or Dogtag packages are found, indicating the product is not installed
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Determine the exact versionRun 'rpm -q <package_name>' for the identified package(s) to get the precise version number (for example, output like dogtag-pki-10.0.0)Affected if The version matches 8.1, 9.0, or 10.0 exactly (for example, dogtag-pki-10.0.0-5 or redhat-certificate-system-8.1)
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Verify pki-tps component is presentRun 'rpm -qa | grep pki-tps' to confirm the pki-tps (token processing) component is installedAffected if The pki-tps package is not installed, meaning the vulnerable component is not present
User is affected if Red Hat Certificate System 8.1 or Dogtag Certificate System 9.0/10.0 is installed with the pki-tps component enabled and accessible to authenticated users.
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 dataApply vendor patches for RHCS 8.1/Dogtag; if no patch available, restrict authenticated access to certificate viewing functions and network-level access to pki-tps until code remediation can be completed.
Fix this in Certificate System
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-1886 — 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-2013-1886 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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