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🛡️ CVE-2026-42955 — unbound

🟢 CVSS 3.7 — Low ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-672 NVD
3.7
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

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.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is high, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity low, availability none.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: High — the attacker first has to win a race, learn a secret or otherwise prepare the target.
  • Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated stranger can try it.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: Low — limited, and the attacker does not choose what is affected.
  • Availability impact: None.

Weakness class

CVE-2026-42955 is classified as CWE-672: Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release. A resource is used after it has been released or has expired.

Affected software

CVE-2026-42955 is recorded against 1 package.

  • unbound (from 1.16.2 up to 1.25.2)

Timeline and source

Published on 22 July 2026 and last revised on 24 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from NVD.

References

www.nlnetlabs.nl

Other advisories for this package

unbound has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-672: Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release) in other software:

Details

Severity LOW
CVSS Score 3.7
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CWE CWE-672
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2026-07-22
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-07-24
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
unbound 1.16.2 1.25.2

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ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.

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