CVE-2026-77860: nlnet labs unbound

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-77860 is a low (CVSS 3.7) vulnerability in nlnet labs unbound. EPSS estimates a 0.30% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21.4% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 16-09-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 16-09-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In NLnetLabs Unbound 1.20.0 up to and including 1.26.0, a vulnerability on the 'serve-expired' code path can cause a double decrement on the 'wait-limit' counter per client IP essentially bypassing one of the counter measures that was introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). A malicious actor can exploit this by controlling an authoritative zone with short TTL, so cached entries expire quickly. Each 'slow' query, one the attacker's authoritative never answers, is followed by one query for an expired cached name, which is answered immediately via the 'serve-expired' path and decrements the counter twice. This second query was named 'pump'. By alternating slow queries and pumps, the attacker keeps the per-client counter at or below the configured 'wait-limit' indefinitely, and can hold an arbitrary number of pending queries from a single source IP, up to the global mesh quota (num-queries-per-thread); eventually bypassing one of the counter measures introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). This vulnerability is present on the 'serve-expired' code path.

• CWE-675Multiple Operations on Resource in Single-Operation ContextThe product performs the same operation on a resource two or more times, when the operation should only be applied once.