Low severity · published Jul 16, 2026
CVE-2026-62994
CoreDNS `k8s_external` headless AXFR can emit an empty transfer batch that panics the `transfer` plugin
3.7
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
CoreDNS is a DNS server written in Go. From 1.9.4 until 1.14.5, a network DNS client allowed to request AXFR for a CoreDNS zone can trigger a panic when CoreDNS is configured with k8s_external headless-service zone transfers and Kubernetes contains a headless service endpoint with no declared ports; plugin/kubernetes/object/endpoint.go creates Port: -1, plugin/k8s_external/msg_to_dns.go skips that service, plugin/k8s_external/transfer.go sends an empty []dns.RR batch, and plugin/transfer/transfer.go indexes records[0] without checking the batch is non-empty. This issue is fixed in version 1.14.5.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 40% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CO
coredns · coredns
>= 1.9.4, < 1.14.5 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-62994
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-62994
Patch
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/commit/ab318db7b4a3a19273852ed627f54888198c8efb
Issue Tracking
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/pull/8207
Release Notes
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/releases/tag/v1.14.5
Exploit
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/security/advisories/GHSA-74w3-63xv-x9mv
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