CVE-2026-81928VulnerabilityPublished 18 Sep 2026Updated 31 Oct 2026

Red Hat Security Advisory: perl-Net-DNS security update

Affects Red Hat perl-Net-DNSSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-81928· High 7.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 09:09 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, 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: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; 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 impacted component (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).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 1 Sep 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 30 Oct 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

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released updated perl-Net-DNS packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Extended Life Cycle 8.10 to address this vulnerability. Users should apply these official updates as detailed in the Red Hat advisory (https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258) to remediate the issue. No additional mitigation steps are indicated.

Description

A denial of service vulnerability exists in the perl-Net-DNS package due to unbounded recursion triggered by misplaced TSIG records. This flaw can cause the DNS resolver modules to enter an infinite recursion state, leading to service disruption. Red Hat has issued a security update addressing this issue for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and its Extended Life Cycle 8.10 variants.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can cause denial of service by triggering unbounded recursion in the DNS resolver modules, potentially disrupting DNS query processing on affected systems.

Summary

The perl-Net-DNS package, which provides Perl modules for DNS resolution beyond standard system calls, contains a vulnerability (CVE-2026-81928) where malformed TSIG records cause unbounded recursion. This results in a denial of service condition. Red Hat has released an update for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Extended Life Cycle 8.10 to fix this issue. The advisory rates the impact as Important and provides updated package versions to remediate the vulnerability.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 31 Oct 2026, 09:09 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-835

Technical details

References

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