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CVE-2026-80225: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in NLnet Labs Unbound

0
Medium
VulnerabilityCVE-2026-80225cvecve-2026-80225cwe-770
Published: 09/16/2026 (09/16/2026, 08:30:04 UTC)
Source: CVE Database V5
Vendor/Project: NLnet Labs
Product: Unbound

Description

In NLnetLabs Unbound up to and including 1.26.0, a degradation of service vulnerability is present in the TCP/DoT reading procedure where there is no limit on consecutive reads. A malicious actor that can stream and sustain a rate of distinct uncached names over the TCP/DoT connection, monopolizes a single worker's entire event loop for as long as its writes stay ahead of the drain.

CVSS v3.1

Score 5.3medium

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected software

NLnet Labs

Unbound

Affected versions
>=0 <1.26.1
GitHub Actionsmore threats →ai
nlnetlabs/unbound
pkg:github/nlnetlabs/unbound
Affected versions
>=0 <1.26.1

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AI-Powered Analysis

Machine-generated threat intelligence

AILast updated: 09/16/2026, 09:02:06 UTC

Technical Analysis

CVE-2026-80225 is a resource exhaustion vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound (<=1.26.0) where the TCP/DoT reading procedure lacks limits on consecutive reads. An attacker capable of streaming a continuous flow of distinct uncached DNS queries over the TCP/DoT connection can monopolize a single worker's event loop, leading to service degradation. This is classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling).

Potential Impact

The vulnerability results in a denial of service condition by degrading service availability. It does not affect confidentiality or integrity. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time.

Mitigation Recommendations

A fix is available in Unbound version 1.26.1 and later. Users should upgrade to version 1.26.1 or newer to remediate this vulnerability. No additional mitigation guidance is provided by the vendor advisory.

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Technical Details

Data Version
5.2
Assigner Short Name
NLnet Labs
Date Reserved
2026-09-07T14:06:21.952Z
Cvss Version
3.1
State
PUBLISHED

Threat ID: 6aaa578955bf5e2cf540b1f9

Added to database: 09/16/2026, 08:47:05 UTC

Last enriched: 09/16/2026, 09:02:06 UTC

Last updated: 09/16/2026, 22:11:11 UTC

Views: 12

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