CVE-2026-55990

Packet of death for a DNSCrypt misconfigured Unbound

MEDIUM
5.9
CVSS Score
Published: July 22, 2026 at 01:10 PM UTC
Updated: October 24, 2026 at 01:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorUnbound

Using Unbound by NLnet Labs?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect Unbound - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
MEDIUM5.9
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.7.0 up to and including 1.25.1, when the 'dnscrypt:' clause lists more 'dnscrypt-provider-cert:' files than there are matching 'dnscrypt-secret-key:' files, Unbound fills only the matched prefix and leaves the tail slots at the '0xdb' fill that libsodium's allocator writes into every allocation. Unbound would then iterate over the number of cert files, not the actual slots, so it walks into a slot with garbage data filled with '0xdb' bytes. Any unauthenticated client that sends one UDP datagram of ≥ 68 bytes whose first 8 bytes are '0xdb' to 'dnscrypt-port' will use that garbage entry which leads to a garbage dereference killing the server. This is a silent faulty configuration that goes unnoticed until triggered with the right client query. Unbound needs to be compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt').

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

1.7.0 ≤ v < 1.25.21.7.0
Affected range stops below 1.25.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (1)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.9MEDIUMNLnet Labs
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-457

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card