CVE-2026-93007

Dnsmasq: dnsmasq: tcp/53 child-slot exhaustion starves dnssec validation

Published Oct 29, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 5.3 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
A flaw was found in dnsmasq. The TCP DNS service uses a small fixed pool of child processes and does not set a receive timeout on client connections. A remote attacker can open idle TCP connections to port 53 and occupy the entire pool, preventing new TCP DNS connections and DNSSEC validation that requires TCP fallback. UDP DNS resolution continues, and occupied slots are released after a fixed lifetime.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

The following measures reduce risk: 1. Increase the TCP connection limit with --max-tcp-connections=<N> to raise the number of connections an attacker must hold. 2. Limit per-source TCP connections to port 53 with firewall rules, for example iptables connlimit on tcp/53. 3. Restrict which hosts can reach TCP port 53 if TCP DNS is not required from untrusted networks.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Redhat rhel Els
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
cpe:/o:redhat:rhel_els:6
cpe:/o:redhat:rhel_els:7
Vendors & Products Redhat rhel Els
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Dnsmasq
Dnsmasq dnsmasq
Red Hat
Red Hat enterprise Linux
Redhat openshift Container Platform
Redhat openstack Platform
Vendors & Products Dnsmasq
Dnsmasq dnsmasq
Red Hat
Red Hat enterprise Linux
Redhat openshift Container Platform
Redhat openstack Platform
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:5
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in dnsmasq. The TCP DNS service uses a small fixed pool of child processes and does not set a receive timeout on client connections. A remote attacker can open idle TCP connections to port 53 and occupy the entire pool, preventing new TCP DNS connections and DNSSEC validation that requires TCP fallback. UDP DNS resolution continues, and occupied slots are released after a fixed lifetime.
Title Dnsmasq: dnsmasq: tcp/53 child-slot exhaustion starves dnssec validation
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat ceph Storage
Redhat enterprise Linux
Redhat openshift
Redhat openstack
Weaknesses CWE-400
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:ceph_storage:9
cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4
cpe:/a:redhat:openstack:13
cpe:/a:redhat:openstack:18.0
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat ceph Storage
Redhat enterprise Linux
Redhat openshift
Redhat openstack
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'}