In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.1, when the validator builds the canonical RDATA form for an RRSIG-covered PX/RP/MINFO/SOA RRset, it computes the address of the second embedded domain name as 'datstart + dname_valid(datstart, ...)' and passes it straight to 'query_dname_tolower()' without checking that a second name is actually present in the RDATA. The wire-format parser accepts multi-dname RRs whose RDATA ends after the first name, so an attacker who runs a DNSSEC-signed authoritative server can deliver a record with an absent second domain name (e.g. SOA record) and cause 'query_dname_tolower()' to walk label-by-label through stale bytes in the per-worker 'env->scratch_buffer', past the end of that heap allocation if 'msg-buffer-size' has been lowered from the default. This leads to heap buffer overflow and on a release build the outcome relies heavily on the contents of the buffer tail and the adjacent heap chunk.
Fix
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 1
- https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-56416.txt Vendor Advisory
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
Change history 1
- First seenCVSS 4.8 · nlnetlabsNVD modified 2026-10-24 13:10
Affected (CPE criteria) 1
cpe:2.3:a:nlnetlabs:unbound:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
References 1
- https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-56416.txt Vendor Advisory