5.9 MEDIUM
- CVSS version (CVSS): 3.1
- Attack Vector (AV): Network (N)
- Attack Complexity (AC): High (H)
- Privileges Required (PR): None (N)
- User Interaction (UI): None (N)
- Scope (S): Unchanged (U)
- Confidentiality (C): None (N)
- Integrity (I): None (N)
- Availability (A): High (H)
- Modified Attack Vector (MAV): Network (N)
- Modified Attack Complexity (MAC): High (H)
- Modified Privileges Required (MPR): None (N)
- Modified User Interaction (MUI): None (N)
- Modified Confidentiality (MC): None (N)
- Modified Scope (MS): Unchanged (U)
- Modified Integrity (MI): None (N)
- Modified Availability (MA): High (H)
Activity log
- Created suggestion
Possible heap use-after-free in an error path when a DoT forwarded query is jostled out
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.15.0 up to and including 1.25.1, the TLS server name used for DNS-over-TLS (DoT) forwarded queries is tied to a struct's ('serviced_query') lifetime but also referenced by another struct ('waiting_tcp'). When the owning struct is jostled out of the mesh while the DoT TCP stream is still handshaking it frees the storage behind the referenced string and if the TLS stream then errors out, it dereferences the freed pointer. The dereference is read-only and the practical impact is a daemon crash resulting in denial of service. A malicious actor that knows a DoT forwarding/stub Unbound's configuration could exploit the vulnerability by quering records in the appropriate zone while keeping Unbound uder pressure so that the jostle logic kicks in. If answers for the vulnerable zone are slow, the likelihood of jostling such queries is higher, although the timing of the jostle needs to be precise. Requirements for a vulnerable Unbound is the existence of a stub/forward zone configured for DoT together with a configured '#authname' suffix on the server identification. The connectivity to the server needs to exhibit a transient failure at the correct time in order to kick off the vulnerable error path.
References
-
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-50046.txt vendor-advisory
Affected products
- <1.25.2
Matching in nixpkgs
pkgs.unbound
Validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver
pkgs.unbound-full
Validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver
pkgs.unbound-with-systemd
Validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver
pkgs.luaPackages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.lua51Packages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.lua52Packages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.lua53Packages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.lua54Packages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.lua55Packages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.luajitPackages.luaunbound
A binding to libunbound
pkgs.prometheus-unbound-exporter
Prometheus exporter for Unbound DNS resolver
pkgs.python313Packages.pyunbound
Python library for Unbound, the validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver
pkgs.python314Packages.pyunbound
Python library for Unbound, the validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver
pkgs.haskellPackages.unbound-generics
Support for programming with names and binders using GHC Generics
pkgs.haskellPackages.unbounded-delays
Unbounded thread delays and timeouts
pkgs.haskellPackages.unbound-kind-generics
Support for programming with names and binders using kind-generics
Package maintainers
-
@mweinelt Martin Weinelt <hexa@darmstadt.ccc.de>
-
@Scrumplex Sefa Eyeoglu <contact@scrumplex.net>