CVE-2026-42955 json
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 2026-07-22 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 15 d ago also EUVD-2026-47666
- cvss
- 3.7
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 9%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
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.
Patch / fix
- NLnet Labs Unbound 1.25.2
- unbound Debian 13 1.26.1-0+deb13u1
- unbound Debian 14 1.25.2-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42955
- unbound hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- unbound-libs hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- unbound-munin hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- unbound-utils hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- unbound-anchor hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- unbound-dracut hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
- python3-unbound hummingbird 1 1.25.2-0.1.hum1
red hat advisories RHSA-2026:43588
- unbound SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS, SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 +1 more 1.25.2-150600.23.19.1
- unbound SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS +6 more 1.25.2-150100.10.28.1
- unbound Linux Micro 6.0 1.25.2-1.1
- unbound Linux Micro 6.1 1.25.2-slfo.1.1_1.1
- unbound SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 1.25.2-160000.1.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:3885-1SUSE-SU-2026:3884-1SUSE-SU-2026:23360-1SUSE-SU-2026:23349-1SUSE-SU-2026:23050-1SUSE-SU-2026:23215-1
- unbound openSUSE Leap 16.0 1.25.2-160000.1.1
- unbound openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.25.2-1.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21550-1openSUSE-SU-2026:11380-1
- unbound Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 1.25.2-r0
alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2026-42955
Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0
Vendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-42955 updated cvss 3.7
unbound: Unbound: DNS cache integrity issue
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 unbound, unbound-libs, python3-unbound Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-dracut, python3-unbound Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 unbound Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
Red Hat Hardened Images unbound 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, unbound-libs 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, unbound-munin 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, unbound-utils 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, unbound-anchor 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, unbound-dracut 1.25.2-0.1.hum1, +1 morefixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:43588
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-pythonnot affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- 3 mo ago
Exploit prediction
0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 3.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
Affected products
- NLnet Labs Unbound
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-672 Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release
References
-
nlnetlabs.nl
/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-42955.txt
vendor-advisory
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-42955
- NVD CVE-2026-42955
Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.