VulnerabilityPublished 8 Nov 2026

CVE-2026-123606: hickory-dns · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects hickory-dnsSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High : upgrade to 0.26.2 soon.

Data as of 8 Nov 2026, 01:50 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

8.7High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (VulnCheck)	CVSS 4.0	8.7
CNA (VulnCheck)	CVSS 3.1	7.5

Patch: Available – fixed in 0.26.2

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: High
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: High: There is a total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the Vulnerable System; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 Nov 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 7 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade hickory-dns to 0.26.2.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
hickory-dnshickory-dns	Affected >=0.25.0-alpha.3 <=0.25.2	Fixed in–
hickory-dnshickory-dns	Affected >=0.26.0-alpha.1 <0.26.2	Fixed in 0.26.2
crates.iohickory-dns`pkg:cargo/hickory-dns`Other threats	Affected >=0.25.0-alpha.3 <=0.25.2 >=0.26.0-alpha.1 <0.26.2	Fixed in 0.26.2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Upgrade affected hickory-dns and hickory-resolver installations to version 0.26.2 or later, where this vulnerability is fixed. No other mitigations or temporary workarounds are indicated.

Description

CVE-2026-123606 is a high-severity vulnerability in hickory-dns recursor versions 0.25.0-alpha.3 through 0.25.2 and hickory-resolver versions 0.26.0-alpha.1 before 0.26.2. The flaw allows remote attackers to cause uncontrolled resource consumption by serving referrals with out-of-bailiwick NS targets lacking glue records. This triggers repeated A and AAAA DNS lookups per target without any per-query work budget, potentially amplifying traffic against remote servers or exhausting the recursor's resources. The issue is fixed in version 0.26.2.

Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this vulnerability to cause uncontrolled resource consumption in the hickory-dns recursor, potentially leading to denial of service conditions or traffic amplification against external DNS servers. This can degrade the availability and performance of the affected DNS recursor service.

Summary

The hickory-dns recursor in affected versions iterates over every out-of-bailiwick NS target that lacks glue records in a referral without limiting the work done per query. Remote attackers can exploit this behavior by sending specially crafted referrals that cause the recursor to perform excessive A and AAAA DNS lookups. This can lead to amplification of traffic against remote DNS servers or depletion of the recursor's resources, resulting in denial of service or degraded performance. The vulnerability has a CVSS 4.0 base score of 8.7, indicating high severity. The issue is resolved in hickory-dns version 0.26.2.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 8 Nov 2026, 01:50 UTC

Technical details

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