CVE-2026-42959NLnet 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.
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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.
- CVSS
- 7.5 HIGH (v3.1, NVD)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-824
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- Not loaded for this CVE
- Assigned by
- Not given
- NVD analysis
- Modified
- Record last updated
- Sep 1, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
Affected products
nlnetlabs unbound nlnetlabs:unbound | before 1.25.1 | NVD |
References
- https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-42959.txtmitigation, vendor-advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19752
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:23231
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:24365
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:24369
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42959
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2479806
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-42959.json
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.