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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2026-50251 json

Attacker supplied '0.0.0.0'/'::' glue triggers defensive full-cache flush

published 2026-07-22 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 16 d ago also EUVD-2026-47675

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 16%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.1, when 'unwanted-reply-threshold' is enabled (set to any value greater than zero), glue records of 0.0.0.0/::0 can short-circuit Unbound, on systems that can direct such traffic, by issuing DNS queries and receiving seemingly unwanted replies since the remote IP does not match the original source IP of 0.0.0.0/::0. This behavior keeps on looping for the glue records and pushing the counter to the configured 'unwanted-reply-threshold' that triggers a defensive cache clear. A malicious actor who controls a delegation that returns in-bailiwick glue of 0.0.0.0/::0 can drive the counter to the limit of 'unwanted-reply-threshold' to the threshold and trigger a cache clean of the message and rrset caches; at will, indefinitely, without sending a single spoofed packet. The iterator uses the 0.0.0.0/::0 glue, and a system that can route this (e.g., Linux kernel routes the datagram over loopback), Unbound's own listener answers from 127.0.0.1. Because of the mismatch of 0.0.0.0 and 127.0.0.1, in this example, Unbound accounts the reply as an unwanted (probably spoofed) answer. The counter resets to zero on every cache flush, so the attack loops forever.

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-2026-50251

  • 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-2026-50251

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-92979

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-2026-50251 updated cvss 5.3

unbound: NLnet Labs Unbound: Denial of Service via crafted DNS glue records

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • 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 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
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.25% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 16% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected products

  • NLnet Labs Unbound

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-184 Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs

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.