CVE-2026-96405
Aggregate DNS name chained pointer decompression work leads to degradation of service.
Medium 5.3
NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.26.1 limits compression-pointer traversal for each individual domain-name operation but has no aggregate inbound decompression-work budget. Many chained compression pointers in a message results in a lot of CPU usage following them. A malicious actor with recursive-query access and control of an ordinarily delegated authority that serves specially crafted replies can exploit the vulnerability and degrade Unbound's general performance.
Assigner
NLnet Labs
NLnet Labs
Published
2026-10-21
2026-10-21
Updated
2026-10-21
2026-10-21
Reserved
2026-10-14
2026-10-14
Scores
| Source | CVSS | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLnet Labs | 3.1 | 5.3 | Medium | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
Weaknesses
Affected
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| NLnet Labs | Unbound | < 1.26.2 (affected)
others: unaffected |
References
- https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-96405.txt vendor-advisory
Full CVE JSON record (5.2)
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"credits": [
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"type": "finder",
"value": "Yuheng Zhang (Tsinghua University \u0026 Jingxian Technology Co., Ltd.)"
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{
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"type": "finder",
"value": "Jianjun Chen (Tsinghua University)"
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{
"lang": "en",
"type": "finder",
"value": "Zihan Wang (Z.AI Co., Ltd.)"
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}
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"value": "Issue reported by Yuheng Zhang"
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"time": "2026-07-17T00:00:00.000Z",
"value": "NLnet Labs shares patch"
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"time": "2026-07-17T00:00:00.000Z",
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"value": "Yuheng Zhang verifies patch"
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{
"lang": "en",
"time": "2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z",
"value": "Coordinated fixes released with version 1.26.2"
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