CVE-2026-42955

Extra fix for CVE-2026-40622 to also clamp the TTL of A/AAAA records disallowing a one-time 'ghost domain' delegation renewal via glue records

Published Jul 22, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 3.7 Low EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
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.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

This issue is fixed starting with version 1.25.2

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6507-1 unbound security update
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Nlnetlabs
Nlnetlabs unbound
Vendors & Products Nlnetlabs
Nlnetlabs unbound
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description 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.
Title Extra fix for CVE-2026-40622 to also clamp the TTL of A/AAAA records disallowing a one-time 'ghost domain' delegation renewal via glue records
Weaknesses CWE-672
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 3.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
NLnet Labs
Published
Updated
Jul 22, 2026, 2:26 PM
Reserved
Jun 22, 2026, 10:11 AM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Jul 22, 2026, 2:17 PM
Modified
Oct 24, 2026, 1:10 PM
Severity
Low
Public date
Jul 22, 2026, 1:05 PM