CVE-2026-56416
Description
A vulnerability in Unbound allows remote attackers using malicious DNSSEC-signed servers to send malformed records that trigger a heap buffer overflow. This can cause a denial of service or potential limited information disclosure.
Statement
This Moderate impact flaw in Unbound allows a remote attacker to trigger a heap buffer overflow by providing specially crafted DNSSEC records from a malicious authoritative server. This can lead to a denial of service for the Unbound service or potentially limited information disclosure. Exploitation requires the Unbound DNSSEC validator to process malformed records, which may be exacerbated if msg-buffer-size is configured below its default value.
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, consider disabling DNSSEC validation in Unbound if it is not strictly required for your environment. This can be achieved by ensuring `module-config: "iterator"` is used in `unbound.conf` and that no `trust-anchor` or `auto-trust-anchor-file` directives are present. Disabling DNSSEC validation will reduce the security assurances provided by DNSSEC. Alternatively, configure Unbound to only perform DNSSEC validation for trusted zones. A restart of the Unbound service is required for changes to take effect.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.8 | N/A | 4.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
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