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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.3 CVE-2026-109125 EUVD-2026-107150GHSA-66rc-377g-m4m4

Possible cache poisoning vulnerability via a cache side-channel exposed by 'unwanted-reply-threshold'

Published Oct 21, 2026 · Updated Oct 29, 2026 · Assigned by NLnet Labs

Description

In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.26.1, an observable cache-level side-channel can be exposed with 'unwanted-reply-threshold > 0' configurations (not a default configuration). If a response-like UDP datagram reaches the upstream source port currently used by a recursive query, but its TXID does not match any pending query, Unbound counts the packet as an unwanted reply. When the accumulated count reaches the configured threshold, Unbound clears the worker's RRset cache and message cache. This cache clear action does not destroy the current upstream UDP pending query. Therefore, an external observer can distinguish whether a candidate port matches the current upstream source port by checking whether an existing cached item has been cleared. This is a cache side-channel vulnerability that can be used to probe the upstream source port. Although the attack is not feasible on default configurations and the suggested value (10 million) makes it an ureliable attack on a public resolver, in scenarios where the attacker can keep a concurrent query window alive, the attacker can first filter the source port and then perform birthday-style guessing against the TXID, making cache poisoning a feasible attack path.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
NLnet Labs Unbound < 1.26.2 1.26.2

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 unbound 1.26.2-1 —
Debian 13 unbound 1.26.2-0+deb13u1 —
Debian 12 unbound No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS unbound No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed unbound 1.26.2-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12257-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 unbound +5 1.17.1-1.amzn2023.0.17 ALAS2023-2026-3313

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 unbound 1.26.2-1 —

Advisories 3

References