Vulnerability Report

CVE-2026-55990

Title: NLnet Labs Unbound DNSCrypt Garbage Dereference DoS

Other

Proof Of Concept

No public PoC currently indexed for CVE-2026-55990.

CWE Category CWE-457
Published Date Jul 22, 2026
Modified Date Jul 24, 2026
Exploit Status Not Found
Score 5.9 CVSS v3.1
Exploit Probability (EPSS)
0.25%

Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2026-55990: In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.7.0 up to and including 1.25.1, when the 'dnscrypt:' clause lists more 'dnscrypt-provider-cert:' files than there are matching 'dnscrypt-secret-key:' files, Unbound fills only the matched prefix and leaves the tail slots at the '0xdb' fill that libsodium's allocator writes into every allocation. Unbound would then iterate over the number of cert files, not the actual slots, so it walks into a slot with garbage data filled with '0xdb' bytes. Any unauthenticated client that sends one UDP datagram of ≥ 68 bytes whose first 8 bytes are '0xdb' to 'dnscrypt-port' will use that garbage entry which leads to a garbage dereference killing the server. This is a silent faulty configuration that goes unnoticed until triggered with the right client query. Unbound needs to be compiled with DNSCrypt support ('--enable-dnscrypt').

CVSS v3.1
Source Entity [email protected]
Severity MEDIUM
5.9
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
N/A
Interaction
NONE
Confidentiality
N/A
Integrity
N/A
Availability
N/A
Scope
UNCHANGED
RAW VECTOR CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Associated Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

Total: Patterns

CVE-2026-55990 Exploits & PoCs (Proof Of Concept)

No public PoCs found in our database for this CVE.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

MODIFIED

Vulnerability data updated via NVD.

Attack Vector Matrix

Access Vector NETWORK
Complexity HIGH
Privileges N/A
Interaction NONE
CVSS Vector String CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected Stack

No specific products linked.