Heap overflow with multiple NSID, COOKIE, PADDING EDNS options
NLnet Labs Unbound 1.14.0 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability that results in heap overflow when encoding multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options in the reply packet. The relevant options ('nsid', 'answer-cookie', 'pad-responses' (default)) need to be enabled for the vulnerability to be exploited. An adversary who can query Unbound can exploit the vulnerability by attaching multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options to the query. A flaw in the size calculation of the EDNS field truncates the correct value which allows the encoder to overflow the available space when writing. Those two combined lead to a heap overflow write of Unbound controlled data and eventually a crash. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to de-duplicate the EDNS options and a fix to prevent truncation of the EDNS field size calculation.
Problem Types
| Type | CWE ID | Description |
|---|
| CWE | CWE-197 | CWE-197: Numeric Truncation Error |
| CWE | CWE-787 | CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write |
Type: CWE
Description: CWE-197: Numeric Truncation Error
Type: CWE
Description: CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write
Metrics
| Version | Base score | Base severity | Vector |
|---|
| 4.0 | 8.7 | HIGH | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Red |
Version: 4.0
Base score: 8.7
Base severity: HIGH
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Red
Timeline
| Event | Date |
|---|
| Issue reported by Qifan Zhang | 2026-04-26 00:00:00 |
| NLnet Labs shares patch | 2026-04-28 00:00:00 |
| Qifan Zhang verifies patch | 2026-04-29 00:00:00 |
| Fixes released with version 1.25.1 | 2026-05-20 00:00:00 |
Event: Issue reported by Qifan Zhang
Date: 2026-04-26 00:00:00
Event: NLnet Labs shares patch
Date: 2026-04-28 00:00:00
Event: Qifan Zhang verifies patch
Date: 2026-04-29 00:00:00
Event: Fixes released with version 1.25.1
Date: 2026-05-20 00:00:00