Detections
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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-42944

high Nessus Plugin ID 315760

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - NLnet Labs Unbound 1.14.0 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability that results in heap overflow when encoding multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options in the reply packet. The relevant options ('nsid', 'answer-cookie', 'pad-responses' (default)) need to be enabled for the vulnerability to be exploited. An adversary who can query Unbound can exploit the vulnerability by attaching multiple NSID and/or DNS Cookie EDNS and/or EDNS Padding options to the query. A flaw in the size calculation of the EDNS field truncates the correct value which allows the encoder to overflow the available space when writing. Those two combined lead to a heap overflow write of Unbound controlled data and eventually a crash. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to de-duplicate the EDNS options and a fix to prevent truncation of the EDNS field size calculation. (CVE-2026-42944)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2026-42944

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42944

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 315760

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_42944.nasl

Version: 1.14

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 5/20/2026

Updated: 6/8/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.4

Temporal Score: 5.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-42944

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.7

Threat Score: 6.6

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:unbound-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:unbound-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:unbound, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:unbound-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:unbound-python, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:unbound-python, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:unbound, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:unbound-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:unbound, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/20/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-42944