CVE-2026-44690
Cross-zone wildcard cache poisoning via RRSIG.labels manipulation
Description
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.7.0 up to and including 1.25.1, insufficient validation of the RRSIG.Labels field combined with premature cache writes during RFC 8198 aggressive NSEC processing leads to cache poisoning that permits a malicious actor controlling a single delegated zone to poison arbitrary sibling zones under NSEC-signed parent domains. A malicious actor with one registered domain under an NSEC-signed TLD can serve malicious insecure DNS responses for unrelated sibling domains (sharing the same parent zone). Arbitrary delegations that do not exist under the parent domain and are covered by the parent's NSEC chain can be brought into insecure existence by fraudulent wildcard DS records (less labels than expected, unknown algorithm) from the malicious sibling domain. This allows the malicious actor to inject insecure wildcard records for those delegations.
INFO
Published Date :
July 22, 2026, 2:17 p.m.
Last Modified :
July 22, 2026, 2:17 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
[email protected]
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | 206fc3a0-e175-490b-9eaa-a5738056c9f6 | ||||
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | [email protected] |
Solution
- Update Unbound to version 1.25.2 or later.
- Apply vendor patches for DNS cache poisoning.
- Validate RRSIG.Labels processing.
- Ensure proper NSEC processing.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-44690.
| URL | Resource |
|---|---|
| https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-44690.txt |
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-44690 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-44690
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-44690 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-44690 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
New CVE Received by [email protected]
Jul. 22, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Affected [{'vendor': 'NLnet Labs', 'product': 'Unbound', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '1.7.0', 'lessThan': '1.25.2', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected'}] Added Description In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.7.0 up to and including 1.25.1, insufficient validation of the RRSIG.Labels field combined with premature cache writes during RFC 8198 aggressive NSEC processing leads to cache poisoning that permits a malicious actor controlling a single delegated zone to poison arbitrary sibling zones under NSEC-signed parent domains. A malicious actor with one registered domain under an NSEC-signed TLD can serve malicious insecure DNS responses for unrelated sibling domains (sharing the same parent zone). Arbitrary delegations that do not exist under the parent domain and are covered by the parent's NSEC chain can be brought into insecure existence by fraudulent wildcard DS records (less labels than expected, unknown algorithm) from the malicious sibling domain. This allows the malicious actor to inject insecure wildcard records for those delegations. Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Added CWE CWE-345 Added Reference https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-44690.txt