CVE-2026-40622

7.5 HIGH
Published: May 20, 2026 Modified: May 26, 2026
View on NVD

Description

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.16.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability of the 'ghost domain names' family of attacks that could extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value. Similar to other 'ghost domain names' attacks, an adversary needs to control a (ghost) zone and be able to query a vulnerable Unbound. A single client NS query can cause Unbound to overwrite the cached expired parent-side referral NS rrset with the child-side apex NS rrset and essentially extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value ('cache-max-ttl'). In configurations where 'harden-referral-path: yes' is used (non-default configuration), no client NS query is required since Unbound implicitly performs that query. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix that does not allow extension of TTLs for (parent) NS records regardless of their trust.

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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:N/I:H/A:N

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-40622.txt
Source: sep@nlnetlabs.nl
Vendor Advisory Patch

1 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
7.5 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.2%
7th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

nlnetlabs