CVE Watchtower

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CVE-2026-42959NVD

Vulnerability Summary

NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability in the DNSSEC validator that can lead to a crash given malicious upstream replies. When Unbound constructs chase-reply messages for validation, the code uses the wrong counter to calculate write offsets for ADDITIONAL section rrsets. DNAME duplication could increase the ANSWER section count and authority filtering could decrease the AUTHORITY section count and create an uninitialized array slot. Combining these two, the validator later dereferences this uninitialized pointer, causing an immediate process crash. An adversary controlling a DNSSEC-signed domain can trigger this bug with a single query by configuring a DNAME chain with unsigned CNAMEs and a response containing unsigned AUTHORITY records alongside signed ADDITIONAL glue records. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to use the proper counters to calculate the write offsets.
Severity Level
UNKNOWN
Published Date
May 20, 2026
Last Modified
Sep 1, 2026
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation yet
EPSS Score (30-Day)
0.72%Probability
Root Weakness (CWE)
Refer to the official MITRE database for detailed architectural specifications regarding this weakness.
CVSS v4.0 Base Metrics — Score 8.7 (HIGH)
Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Attack RequirementsNone
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
Confidentiality (Vulnerable System)None
Integrity (Vulnerable System)None
Availability (Vulnerable System)High
Confidentiality (Subsequent System)None
Integrity (Subsequent System)None
Availability (Subsequent System)None

Affected & Patched Versions

Affected Versions
  • NLnet Labs Unbound < 1.25.1
Patched Versions
  • NLnet Labs Unbound 1.25.1
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💬Webhooks — Slack & Teams integration.
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