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Low · 3.7 CVE-2026-77860 EUVD-2026-80286GHSA-8483-8qxh-jcf2

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

Published Sep 16, 2026 · Updated Sep 16, 2026 · Assigned by NLnet Labs

Description

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
NLnet Labs Unbound 1.20.0 – < 1.26.1 1.26.1

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 1.26.1-1 —
Debian 13 unbound 1.26.1-0+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
Red Hat Hardened Images 1 unbound +7 1.26.1-1.hum1 RHSA-2026:68590
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 unbound 1.26.1-150600.23.24.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4620-1
SLES 15 SP6 unbound 1.26.1-150600.23.24.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4620-1
SLES 15 SP5 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
SLES 15 SP4 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
Show 11 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 unbound 1.26.1-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24226-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP6 unbound 1.26.1-150600.23.24.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4620-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP5 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP4 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
SLES 16.0 unbound 1.26.1-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24226-1
SLE Micro 6.2 unbound 1.26.1-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24128-1
SLE Micro 6.1 unbound 1.26.1-slfo.1.1_1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24376-1
SLE Micro 6.0 unbound 1.26.1-159998.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24135-1
SLE Micro 5.5 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
SLE HPC 15 SP5 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
SLE HPC 15 SP4 unbound 1.26.1-150100.10.31.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4624-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed unbound 1.26.1-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11930-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 unbound 1.26.1-160000.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:22082-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 unbound 1.26.1-1 —

Advisories 10

References