CVE-2026-44687 (GCVE-0-2026-44687)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-07-22 13:06 – Updated: 2026-07-22 14:19
VLAI
Title
Off-by-one error in 'harden-below-nxdomain' logic can shadow a stub/forward zone by a legitimate parent's NXDOMAIN
Summary
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.13.2 up to and including 1.25.1, stub or forward zones where the name is below an intermediate labed below a DNSSEC signed zone could be shadowed by the intermediate label's secure NXDOMAIN answer from the parent. This is caused by an off-by-one error in 'harden-below-nxdomain' logic; enabled by default. It effectively bypasses the configuration and the configured stub/forward zone is never contacted. 'harden-below-nxdomain' does an upward DNS cache walk together with a delegation point guard that does not allow NXDOMAIN synthesis above stub/forward zones. The guard tests the domain name but before stripping a label. This results in an iteration where the domain name equals the configured stub/forward zone apex that passes the guard, strips one more label, and probes the cache at the apex's immediate public parent. If that parent has a cached DNSSEC-secure NXDOMAIN, which it will for any private namespace nested two or more labels under a signed public name, the walk returns it and the configured stub/forward upstream is never contacted. This can only be triggered by the query for the intermediate label (between the stub/forward apex and the DNSSEC parent zone).
Severity
3.7 (Low)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
SSVC
Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2026-07-22 14:19 UTC
CWE
Assigner
NLnet Labs CNA
CNA scorecard B 82/100 over 73 records in the last 180 days details
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
NLnet Labs Unbound Affected: 1.13.2 , < 1.25.2 (semver)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
Date Public
2026-07-22 00:00
Credits
Qifan Zhang (Palo Alto Networks)
Show details on NVD website
To clipboard 

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