CVE-2026-50251

In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.1, when 'unwanted-reply-threshold' is enabled (set to any value greater than zero), glue records of 0.0.0.0/::0 can short-circuit Unbound, on systems that can direct such traffic, by issuing DNS queries and receiving seemingly unwanted replies since the remote IP does not match the original source IP of 0.0.0.0/::0. This behavior keeps on looping for the glue records and pushing the counter to the configured 'unwanted-reply-threshold' that triggers a defensive cache clear. A malicious actor who controls a delegation that returns in-bailiwick glue of 0.0.0.0/::0 can drive the counter to the limit of 'unwanted-reply-threshold' to the threshold and trigger a cache clean of the message and rrset caches; at will, indefinitely, without sending a single spoofed packet. The iterator uses the 0.0.0.0/::0 glue, and a system that can route this (e.g., Linux kernel routes the datagram over loopback), Unbound's own listener answers from 127.0.0.1. Because of the mismatch of 0.0.0.0 and 127.0.0.1, in this example, Unbound accounts the reply as an unwanted (probably spoofed) answer. The counter resets to zero on every cache flush, so the attack loops forever.

CVSS v3 5.3 MEDIUM

5.3^/10

CVSS v3 : MEDIUM

Vector :

Exploitability : 3.9 / Impact : 1.4

Attack Vector NETWORK

Attack Complexity LOW

Privileges Required NONE

User Interaction NONE

Confidentiality Impact NONE

Integrity Impact NONE

Availability Impact LOW

Scope UNCHANGED

References

Link	Resource
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-50251.txt

Configurations

No configuration.

History

22 Jul 2026, 14:17

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
New CVE

Information

Published : 2026-07-22 14:17

Updated : 2026-07-22 20:33

NVD link : CVE-2026-50251

Mitre link : CVE-2026-50251

CVE.ORG link : CVE-2026-50251

JSON object : View

Products Affected

No product.

CWE

CWE-184

Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs

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