Vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound (CVE-2026-42944)
Summary
Vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound (CVE-2026-42944). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
NLnet Labs Unbound 1.14.0 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability that results in heap overflow when encoding multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options in the reply packet. The relevant options ('nsid', 'answer-cookie', 'pad-responses' (default)) need to be enabled for the vulnerability to be exploited. An adversary who can query Unbound can exploit the vulnerability by attaching multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options to the query. A flaw in the size calculation of the EDNS field truncates the correct value which allows the encoder to overflow the available space when writing. Those two combined lead to a heap overflow write of Unbound controlled data and eventually a crash. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to de-duplicate the EDNS options and a fix to prevent truncation of the EDNS field size calculation.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-42944 has been found in NLnet Labs Unbound.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 7.5/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "NLnet Labs Unbound CVE-2026-42944" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-42944 (NLnet Labs Unbound) — CWE-197 / CVSS v3 7.5
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-197) exists in NLnet Labs Unbound.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of NLnet Labs Unbound.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5/10). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
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1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで NLnet Labs Unbound を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
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2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Alpine Linux ALPINE-CVE-2026-42944 unbound Fixed in: 1.25.1-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42944 unbound
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42944 unbound
References
- patch sep@nlnetlabs.nl
- web nvd.nist.gov
- web github.com
- web access.redhat.com
- web access.redhat.com
- web access.redhat.com
- web access.redhat.com
- web access.redhat.com
- web bugzilla.redhat.com
- web security.access.redhat.com