CVE-2026-96405
Aggregate DNS name chained pointer decompression work leads to degradation of service.
CVSS Score
5.3
EPSS Score
0.0%
EPSS Percentile
0th
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.
| CWE | CWE-770 |
| Vendor | nlnet labs |
| Product | unbound |
| Published | Oct 21, 2026 |
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CVSS v3 Breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
Affected Versions
NLnet Labs / Unbound
0 < 1.26.2
References
Credits
Yuheng Zhang (Tsinghua University & Jingxian Technology Co., Ltd.) Jianjun Chen (Tsinghua University) Zihan Wang (Z.AI Co., Ltd.) Kaiwen Shen (CloudItera)