CVE-2026-42923

5.3 MEDIUM
Published: May 20, 2026 Modified: May 20, 2026
View on NVD

Description

NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability in the DNSSEC validator where the code path to consult the negative cache for DS records does not take into account the limit on NSEC3 hash calculations introduced in 1.19.1. This leads to degradation of service during the attack. An adversary that controls a DNSSEC signed zone can exploit this by signing NSEC3 records with acceptably high iterations for child delegations and querying a vulnerable Unbound. Unbound will keep performing the allowed hash calculations on the NSEC3 records and will not limit the work by the mitigation introduced in 1.19.1. As a side effect, a global lock for the negative cache will be held for the duration of the hashing, blocking other threads that need to consult the negative cache. Coordinated attacks could raise the vulnerability to denial of service. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to bound the vulnerable code path with the existing limit for NSEC3 hash calculations.

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CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-42923.txt
Source: sep@nlnetlabs.nl
Mitigation Vendor Advisory

1 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
5.3 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.3%
26th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

nlnetlabs