USN-8282-2: Unbound vulnerabilities

Publication date

2 June 2026

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in Unbound.


Packages

  • unbound - validating, recursive, caching DNS resolver

Details

USN-8282-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Unbound. This update provides the
corresponding updates for CVE-2026-41292 in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu
20.04 LTS and CVE-2026-42959, CVE-2026-42960 in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu
16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Original advisory details:

Andrew Griffiths discovered that Unbound did not properly handle certain
DNSCrypt packets. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause
Unbound to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-32792)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled DNSSEC validation
in certain situations. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu
25.10, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (

USN-8282-1 fixed vulnerabilities in Unbound. This update provides the
corresponding updates for CVE-2026-41292 in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu
20.04 LTS and CVE-2026-42959, CVE-2026-42960 in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu
16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Original advisory details:

Andrew Griffiths discovered that Unbound did not properly handle certain
DNSCrypt packets. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause
Unbound to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-32792)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled DNSSEC validation
in certain situations. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu
25.10, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-33278)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain ghost
domain name records. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
cause a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 24.04 LTS,
Ubuntu 25.10, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-40622)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound did not properly limit processing of
long EDNS option lists. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
cause Unbound to use excessive resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2026-41292)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled jostle logic under
certain circumstances. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
cause Unbound to use excessive resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2026-42534)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound did not properly bound NSEC3 hash
calculations. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause
Unbound to use excessive resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2026-42923)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled multiple EDNS
options in certain situations. A remote attacker could possibly use this
issue to cause Unbound to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or
execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu
25.10, and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-42944)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled DNSSEC validation
of malicious content. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to
cause Unbound to crash, resulting in a denial of service.
(CVE-2026-42959)

TaoFei Guo, Yang Luo, and JianJun Chen discovered that Unbound
incorrectly handled delegation processing in certain situations. A remote
attacker could possibly use this issue to poison the DNS cache and obtain
sensitive information. (CVE-2026-42960)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound did not properly bound name
compression in certain cases. A remote attacker could possibly use this
issue to cause Unbound to use excessive resources, leading to a denial of
service. (CVE-2026-44390)

Qifan Zhang discovered that Unbound had a use-after-free issue in RPZ
handling. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound
to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or execute arbitrary code.
This issue only affected Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 25.10, and Ubuntu 26.04
LTS. (CVE-2026-44608)


Update instructions

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
20.04 LTS focal libunbound8 –  1.9.4-2ubuntu1.11+esm1  
unbound –  1.9.4-2ubuntu1.11+esm1  
18.04 LTS bionic libunbound2 –  1.6.7-1ubuntu2.6+esm4  
unbound –  1.6.7-1ubuntu2.6+esm4  
16.04 LTS xenial libunbound2 –  1.5.8-1ubuntu1.1+esm3  
unbound –  1.5.8-1ubuntu1.1+esm3  
14.04 LTS trusty libunbound2 –  1.4.22-1ubuntu4.14.04.3+esm3  
unbound –  1.4.22-1ubuntu4.14.04.3+esm3  

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