CVE-2026-42960

Possible cache poisoning via promiscuous records for the authority section

Published May 20, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 5.7 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.0 is vulnerable to poisoning via promiscuous records for the authority section. Promiscuous RRSets that complement DNS replies in the authority section can be used to trick Unbound to cache such records. If an adversary is able to attach such records in a reply (i.e., spoofed packet, fragmentation attack) he would be able to poison Unbound's cache. A malicious actor can exploit the possible poisonous effect by injecting RRSets other than NS that are also accompanied by address records in a reply, for example MX. This could be achieved by trying to spoof a reply packet or fragmentation attacks. Unbound would then accept the relative address records in the additional section and cache them if the authority RRSet has enough trust at this point, i.e., in-zone data for the delegation point. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix that disregards address records from the additional section if they are not explicitly relevant only to authority NS records, mitigating the possible poison effect. This is a complement fix to CVE-2025-11411.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

This issue is fixed starting with version 1.25.1

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6304-1 unbound security update
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8282-1 Unbound vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8282-2 Unbound vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Nlnetlabs
Nlnetlabs unbound
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nlnetlabs:unbound:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Nlnetlabs
Nlnetlabs unbound
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 10.0, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H'}

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 NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.0 is vulnerable to poisoning via promiscuous records for the authority section. Promiscuous RRSets that complement DNS replies in the authority section can be used to trick Unbound to cache such records. If an adversary is able to attach such records in a reply (i.e., spoofed packet, fragmentation attack) he would be able to poison Unbound's cache. A malicious actor can exploit the possible poisonous effect by injecting RRSets other than NS that are also accompanied by address records in a reply, for example MX. This could be achieved by trying to spoof a reply packet or fragmentation attacks. Unbound would then accept the relative address records in the additional section and cache them if the authority RRSet has enough trust at this point, i.e., in-zone data for the delegation point. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix that disregards address records from the additional section if they are not explicitly relevant only to authority NS records, mitigating the possible poison effect. This is a complement fix to CVE-2025-11411.
Title Possible cache poisoning via promiscuous records for the authority section
Weaknesses CWE-349
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 5.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:H/E:P/U:Amber'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
NLnet Labs
Published
Updated
May 20, 2026, 1:04 PM
Reserved
May 7, 2026, 10:13 AM
Status
Analyzed
Published
May 20, 2026, 10:16 AM
Modified
Jul 24, 2026, 10:10 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
May 20, 2026, 12:00 AM