CVE-2026-33278

9.8 CRITICAL
Published: May 20, 2026 Modified: May 20, 2026
View on NVD

Description

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.19.1 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability in the DNSSEC validator that enables denial of service and possible remote code execution as a result of deep copying a data structure and erroneously overwriting a destination pointer. An adversary can exploit the vulnerability by controlling a malicious signed zone and querying a vulnerable Unbound. When DS sub-queries need to suspend validation due to NSEC3 computational budget exhaustion (introduced in Unbound 1.19.1), Unbound deep-copies response messages to preserve them across memory region teardown. A struct-assignment bug overwrites the destination's pointer with the source's pointer. After the sub-query region is freed, the resumed validator dereferences this dangling pointer, triggering a crash or potentially enabling arbitrary code execution. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to preserve the correct pointer when deep copying the data structure.

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CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-33278.txt
Source: sep@nlnetlabs.nl
Mitigation Vendor Advisory

1 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
9.8 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.4%
63th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

nlnetlabs