Medium severity · published May 20, 2026
CVE-2026-42534
Jostle logic bypass degrades resolution performance
5.3
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability in the jostle logic that could defeat its purpose and degrade resolution performance. Retransmits of the same query could renew the age of slow running queries and not allow the jostle logic to see them as aged and potential targets for replacement with new queries. An adversary who can query a vulnerable Unbound and who can control a domain name server that replies slowly and/or maliciously to Unbound's queries can exploit the vulnerability and degrade the resolution performance of Unbound. When Unbound's 'num-queries-per-thread' reaches its limit, the jostle logic kicks in. When a new query comes in, half of the available queries that are also slow to resolve are candidates for replacement. The vulnerability then happens because duplicate queries that need resolution would skew the aging result by using the timestamp of the latest duplicate query instead of the original one that started the resolution effort. Cache and local data response performance remains unaffected. Coordinated attacks could raise this to a denial of resolution service. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to attach an initial, non-updatable start time for incoming queries that allow the jostle logic to work as intended.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 49% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
UN
Unbound · NLnet Labs
before 1.25.1 · source: vendor, NVD
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat Hardened Images · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
RH
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42534
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-42534
Mitigation
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2026-42534.txt
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:24013
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36320
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36777
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:37282
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42534
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