A wildcard replay, as another piece of data, triggers poisoning in the serve expired reply path
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · Low · None
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 7 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.0 up to and including 1.25.1, a replay of a wildcard rrset as another piece of data, could be briefly considered DNSSEC secure based only on the RRSIG validation and stored into cache, before later validation treats it as bogus based on NSEC validation. When the resolving thread puts secure on the rrset, and another thread that is on the serve expired path then picks up the updated rrset contents with the secure status for a reply, it can be used to change a specific record, next to a wildcard that could be covered by the wildcard, into the wildcard. A malicious actor can exploit the possible poisonous effect by having any DNSSEC-singed domain (irrelevant to the victim domain) and a CNAME wrapper record that points to a record next to a wildcard (that could be covered by the wildcard). Then quering Unbound for the wildcard sibling record would seed the secure message. A later (after expiry) query for the CNAME wrapper would need to resolve the target sibling record. If the wildcard replay is injected into the response, the wildcard rrset will update the expired sibling record with a secure status before completing proper wildcard validation with NSEC records and eventually treating the CNAME wrapper answer as bogus. The updated poisoned rrset is now secure and points to the wildcard. This vulnerability is explicit for the serve expired path and needs injection of the signed wildcard rrset without the NSEC accompanying rrset.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLnet Labs | Unbound | 1.6.0 to before 1.25.2 | 1.25.2 | Patch available | CNA |
- Unbound VendorNLnet Labs Affected 1.6.0 to before 1.25.2 Fixed in 1.25.2 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Unbound (NLnet Labs) Fixed in 1.25.2
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2026:43588 Released 2026-07-22 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images python3-unbound-1.25.2-0.1.hum1@aarch64, python3-unbound-1.25.2-0.1.hum1@x86_64, unbound-1.25.2-0.1.hum1@aarch64 +14
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Release ·
NLnet Labs Unbound 1.25.2
24 records Highest priority Priority LOW 24 LOW
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2026-40374 'dns-error-reporting: yes' leads to stack buffer overflowPriority LOW 39
- TI-2026-29375 Packet of death for DNSCrypt over TCPPriority LOW 39
- TI-2026-25166 Remote DNS-over-QUIC denial of service due to `quic-size` budget bypassPriority LOW 39
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:43588 |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-46582
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-cj23-2crp-2xvv
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
More NLnet Labs vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-25690 Possible arbitrary code execution during DNSSEC validation CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2026-56302 Heap buffer overflow and possible Remote Code Execution when digesting DNSKEY CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2026-31146 Crash during DNSSEC validation of malicious content CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-31135 Heap overflow with multiple NSID, COOKIE, PADDING EDNS options CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-36436 Routinator crashes on specifically crafted RRDP XML files CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-36433 Routinator exits when accepting an incoming HTTP or RTR connection fails CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
Sources
- CVE-2026-46582 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-46582 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-cj23-2crp-2xvv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-46582 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences