Vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound (CVE-2026-42955)
Summary
Vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound (CVE-2026-42955). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.16.2 up to and including 1.25.1, a similar vulnerability as with CVE-2026-40622 in the 'ghost domain names' family of attacks was found in Unbound that could extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value for A/AAAA glue records. Similar to other 'ghost domain names' attacks, an adversary needs to control a (ghost) zone and be able to query a vulnerable Unbound. A single client A/AAAA query can cause Unbound to overwrite the cached expired parent-side glue rrset and essentially extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value ('cache-max-ttl'). In configurations where 'harden-referral-path: yes' is used (non-default configuration), no client query is required since Unbound implicitly performs that query. This is a variant of CVE-2026-40622 which only addressed the NS query.
Source: GitHub Security Advisories (Global) 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-2026-42955 has been found in NLnet Labs Unbound.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 3.7/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "NLnet Labs Unbound CVE-2026-42955" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-42955 (NLnet Labs Unbound) — CWE-672 / CVSS v3 3.7
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-672) exists in NLnet Labs Unbound.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of NLnet Labs Unbound.
Severity: Low (CVSS 3.7/10). 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-2026-42955 unbound Fixed in: 1.25.2-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42955 unbound
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42955 unbound
References
- patch sep@nlnetlabs.nl
- web nvd.nist.gov
- web github.com