Medium severity · published Oct 21, 2026
CVE-2026-109125
Possible cache poisoning vulnerability via a cache side-channel exposed by 'unwanted-reply-threshold'
5.3
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.26.1, an observable cache-level side-channel can be exposed with 'unwanted-reply-threshold > 0' configurations (not a default configuration). If a response-like UDP datagram reaches the upstream source port currently used by a recursive query, but its TXID does not match any pending query, Unbound counts the packet as an unwanted reply. When the accumulated count reaches the configured threshold, Unbound clears the worker's RRset cache and message cache. This cache clear action does not destroy the current upstream UDP pending query. Therefore, an external observer can distinguish whether a candidate port matches the current upstream source port by checking whether an existing cached item has been cleared. This is a cache side-channel vulnerability that can be used to probe the upstream source port. Although the attack is not feasible on default configurations and the suggested value (10 million) makes it an ureliable attack on a public resolver, in scenarios where the attacker can keep a concurrent query window alive, the attacker can first filter the source port and then perform birthday-style guessing against the TXID, making cache poisoning a feasible attack path.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Attack vector
Adjacent
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 7% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
UN
Unbound · NLnet Labs
before 1.26.2 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-109125
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-109125
www.nlnetlabs.nl
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-109125.txt
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