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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.9

CVE-2026-50046 json

Possible heap use-after-free in an error path when a DoT forwarded query is jostled out

published 2026-07-22 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 16 d ago also EUVD-2026-47672

cvss
5.9
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 14%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.15.0 up to and including 1.25.1, the TLS server name used for DNS-over-TLS (DoT) forwarded queries is tied to a struct's ('serviced_query') lifetime but also referenced by another struct ('waiting_tcp'). When the owning struct is jostled out of the mesh while the DoT TCP stream is still handshaking it frees the storage behind the referenced string and if the TLS stream then errors out, it dereferences the freed pointer. The dereference is read-only and the practical impact is a daemon crash resulting in denial of service. A malicious actor that knows a DoT forwarding/stub Unbound's configuration could exploit the vulnerability by quering records in the appropriate zone while keeping Unbound uder pressure so that the jostle logic kicks in. If answers for the vulnerable zone are slow, the likelihood of jostling such queries is higher, although the timing of the jostle needs to be precise. Requirements for a vulnerable Unbound is the existence of a stub/forward zone configured for DoT together with a configured '#authname' suffix on the server identification. The connectivity to the server needs to exhibit a transient failure at the correct time in order to kick off the vulnerable error path.

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-2026-50046

  • 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-2026-50046

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • unbound Azure Linux 3.0 1.25.2-1

azure linux advisories AZL-92970

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-50046 updated cvss 3.7

unbound: Unbound: Denial of Service due to freed pointer dereference in DNS-over-TLS handling

  • 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-9
    affected: 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 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:43588
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python
    not 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

0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • NLnet Labs Unbound

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

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.