Findings

CVE-2026-32792

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability when compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt').

Published May 20, 2026 · updated Jul 24, 2026 · nlnetlabs unbound

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability when compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt'). A bad DNSCrypt query could underflow Unbound's DNSCrypt packet reading procedure that may lead to heap overflow. A malicious actor can exploit the vulnerability with a single bad DNSCrypt query that its decrypted plaintext consists entirely of '0x00' bytes and does not contain the expected '0x80' marker. Unbound would then start reading more bytes than necessary until it finds a non-'0x00' byte. Based on the underlying memory allocator and the memory layout, it could lead to heap overflow while reading followed by a crash. Likelihood of a crash is low, since it relies heavily on the underlying memory allocator and the memory layout. If the heap overflow does not happen, Unbound's later packet checks will deny the packet. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to bound reading in the given buffer space.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

No public source repository is identified for this product.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. May 20, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability when compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt'). A bad DNSCrypt query could underflow Unbound's DNSCrypt packet reading procedure that may lead to heap overflow. A malicious actor can exploit the vulnerability with a single bad DNSCrypt query that its decrypted plaintext consists entirely of

  2. Jul 24, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability when compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt'). A bad DNSCrypt query could underflow Unbound's DNSCrypt packet reading procedure that may lead to heap overflow. A malicious actor can exploit the vulnerability with a single bad DNSCrypt query that its decrypted plaintext consists entirely of

Affected

  • cpe nlnetlabs/unboundversion unspecified

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-32792

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-32792

    NLnet Labs Unbound 1.6.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a denial of service vulnerability when compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt'). A bad DNSCrypt query could underflow Unbound's DNSCrypt packet reading procedure that may lead to heap overflow. A maliciou

    nvd.nist.gov

References