CVE-2026-81634

Possible heap buffer overflow during DNSSEC canonicalization

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 16, 2026 at 08:30 AM UTC
Updated: September 23, 2026 at 08:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorUnbound

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including 1.26.0, a 255 length query name with a large TCP response can lead to a heap buffer overflow during the RRSet canonicalisation routine. This is caused by missing to add the first owner name into the buffer length check. A malicious actor operating a malicious name server or tampering with an incoming response to Unbound (canonicalisation happens before DNSSEC validation), can trigger the vulnerability.

Affected

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

v < 1.26.1
Affected range stops below 1.26.1, 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 exploitAutomatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

7.5HIGHNLnet Labs
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-122

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