CVE-2026-44690
7.5 · HIGHOverview
CVE-2026-44690 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting nlnetlabs unbound. It was published on July 22, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.7.0 up to and including 1.25.1, insufficient validation of the RRSIG.Labels field combined with premature cache writes during RFC 8198 aggressive NSEC processing leads to cache poisoning that permits a malicious actor controlling a single delegated zone to poison arbitrary sibling zones under NSEC-signed parent domains. A malicious actor with one registered domain under an NSEC-signed TLD can serve malicious insecure DNS responses for unrelated sibling domains (sharing the same parent zone). Arbitrary delegations that do not exist under the parent domain and are covered by the parent's NSEC chain can be brought into insecure existence by fraudulent wildcard DS records (less labels than expected, unknown algorithm) from the malicious sibling domain. This allows the malicious actor to inject insecure wildcard records for those delegations.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from nlnetlabs. Update unbound to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| nlnetlabs | unbound | >= 1.7.0, < 1.25.2 | Affected |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2026-44690?
CVE-2026-44690 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting nlnetlabs unbound. It was published on July 22, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2026-44690?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-44690?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from nlnetlabs. Update unbound to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-44690?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2026-44690 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
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