Degradation of resolution service from improperly accounted client-terminated DNS-over-QUIC queries

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-41637
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerNLnet Labs
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-07-22 14:17:18 UTC
Updated2026-07-22 20:33:11 UTC
DescriptionIn NLnet Labs Unbound 1.22.0 up to and including 1.25.1, client terminated DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ) queries are not accounted properly by Unbound resulting in low-cost inflation of the waiting number of replies for already in-flight resolution queries. This results in degradation of resolution service for new clients for already in-flight queries. A malicious actor can exploit the vulnerability by issuing DoQ queries for query names that need resolution and proceeding on immediately terminating the query by one of STOP_SENDING/RESET_STREAM/CONNECTION_CLOSE QUIC frames. Those terminated DoQ queries are not properly counted for and keep inflating the number of waiting replies for in-flight queries. When the maximum is reached, it results in silent query drops for new clients needing resolution for already in-flight queries. This vulnerability needs Unbound to be compiled with DoQ support ('--with-libngtcp2') and the 'quic-port' to be configured for the listening interfaces. Additionally, a malicious actor needs access to multiple source IPs to bypass the by-default configured 'wait-limit' option.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 3.7 LOW from [email protected]

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

Problem Types: CWE-772 | CWE-772 CWE-772: Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary3.7LOWCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
3.1CNACVSS3.7LOWCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

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

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA NLnet Labs Unbound affected 1.22.0 1.25.2 semver Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-41637.txt [email protected] www.nlnetlabs.nl
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Qifan Zhang (Palo Alto Networks) (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2026-05-22T00:00:00.000ZIssue reported by Qifan Zhang
CNA2026-06-17T00:00:00.000ZNLnet Labs shares patch
CNA2026-06-17T00:00:00.000ZQifan Zhang verifies patch
CNA2026-07-22T00:00:00.000ZFixes released with version 1.25.2

Solutions

CNA: This issue is fixed starting with version 1.25.2

© CVE.report 2026

Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to this information or its use. Any use of this information is at the user's risk. It is the responsibility of user to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content. EACH USER WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY consequences of his or her direct or indirect use of this web site. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. This site will NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT or any other kind of loss.

CVE, CWE, and OVAL are registred trademarks of The MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. This site includes MITRE data granted under the following license.

Free CVE JSON API cve.report/api

CVE.report and Source URL Uptime Status status.cve.report