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Fencer Vulns
low 3.7

CVE-2026-77860 json

'serve-expired' can bypass Unbound 'wait-limit'

published 2026-09-16 54 d ago modified 2026-09-23 46 d ago also EUVD-2026-80286

cvss
3.7
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 23%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In NLnetLabs Unbound 1.20.0 up to and including 1.26.0, a vulnerability on the 'serve-expired' code path can cause a double decrement on the 'wait-limit' counter per client IP essentially bypassing one of the counter measures that was introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). A malicious actor can exploit this by controlling an authoritative zone with short TTL, so cached entries expire quickly. Each 'slow' query, one the attacker's authoritative never answers, is followed by one query for an expired cached name, which is answered immediately via the 'serve-expired' path and decrements the counter twice. This second query was named 'pump'. By alternating slow queries and pumps, the attacker keeps the per-client counter at or below the configured 'wait-limit' indefinitely, and can hold an arbitrary number of pending queries from a single source IP, up to the global mesh quota (num-queries-per-thread); eventually bypassing one of the counter measures introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). This vulnerability is present on the 'serve-expired' code path.

Patch / fix

  • NLnet Labs Unbound 1.26.1
  • unbound Debian 13 1.26.1-0+deb13u1
  • unbound Debian 14 1.26.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-77860

  • unbound hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • unbound-libs hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • unbound-munin hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • unbound-utils hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • unbound-anchor hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • unbound-dracut hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1
  • python3-unbound hummingbird 1 1.26.1-1.hum1

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:68590

  • unbound Linux Micro 6.1 1.26.1-slfo.1.1_1.1
  • unbound SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS +6 more 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1
  • unbound SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS, SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 +1 more 1.26.1-150600.23.24.1
  • unbound SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 1.26.1-160000.1.1
  • unbound Linux Micro 6.0 1.26.1-159998.1.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24376-1SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1SUSE-SU-2026:4620-1SUSE-SU-2026:24128-1SUSE-SU-2026:24226-1SUSE-SU-2026:24135-1

  • unbound openSUSE Leap 16.0 1.26.1-160000.1.1
  • unbound openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.26.1-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:22082-1openSUSE-SU-2026:11930-1

  • unbound Azure Linux 3.0 1.26.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-101718

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-2026-77860 updated cvss 3.7

unbound: Unbound: Denial of Service via 'serve-expired' code path bypass

  • 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-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Hardened Images unbound 1.26.1-1.hum1, unbound-libs 1.26.1-1.hum1, unbound-munin 1.26.1-1.hum1, unbound-utils 1.26.1-1.hum1, unbound-anchor 1.26.1-1.hum1, unbound-dracut 1.26.1-1.hum1, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:68590
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 unbound, unbound-libs, unbound-python Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 unbound, unbound-libs, python3-unbound Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8
    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
53 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.30% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 23% 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:N/A:L

Affected products

  • NLnet Labs Unbound

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-675 Multiple Operations on Resource in Single-Operation Context

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.