CVE-2026-77955

Possible ZONEMD verification bypass window

Published Sep 16, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 4.4 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.13.2 up to and including 1.26.1, a vulnerability in ZONEMD configured zones (zonemd-check: yes) which are located below (but not at) a trust anchor allow for an attack window where (tampered with) zone contents are served (or stored to disk) prior to the ZONEMD integrity check. This is caused by the needed DS/DNSKEY asynchronous resolution that needs to happen before the ZONEMD check completes. If a zonefile is written to disk (zonefile: option) while the ZONEMD check failed, the tampered data are reloaded on startup and available until ZONEMD verification concludes again. If verification fails, the data is not served any more but still persists on disk for future reloads.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

This issue is fixed starting with version 1.26.1

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6507-1 unbound security update
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nlnetlabs:unbound:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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 1.13.2 up to and including 1.26.1, a vulnerability in ZONEMD configured zones (zonemd-check: yes) which are located below (but not at) a trust anchor allow for an attack window where (tampered with) zone contents are served (or stored to disk) prior to the ZONEMD integrity check. This is caused by the needed DS/DNSKEY asynchronous resolution that needs to happen before the ZONEMD check completes. If a zonefile is written to disk (zonefile: option) while the ZONEMD check failed, the tampered data are reloaded on startup and available until ZONEMD verification concludes again. If verification fails, the data is not served any more but still persists on disk for future reloads.
Title Possible ZONEMD verification bypass window
Weaknesses CWE-345
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 4.4, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
NLnet Labs
Published
Updated
Sep 16, 2026, 2:33 PM
Reserved
Sep 7, 2026, 2:06 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Sep 16, 2026, 9:17 AM
Modified
Sep 23, 2026, 8:19 PM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Sep 16, 2026, 8:29 AM