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F5 Networks BIG-IP : NLnet Labs Unbound vulnerability (K000162784)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 333374

Synopsis

The remote device is missing a vendor-supplied security patch.

Description

The version of F5 Networks BIG-IP installed on the remote host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the K000162784 advisory.

 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.(CVE-2026-42534)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the F5 Networks BIG-IP security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

The vendor has acknowledged the vulnerability, but no solution has been provided.
Refer to the vendor for remediation guidance.

See Also

https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000162784

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 333374

File Name: f5_bigip_SOL000162784.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Published: 8/7/2026

Updated: 8/7/2026

Configuration: Enable paranoid mode

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 1.2

Percentile: 0.01

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-42534

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.3

Temporal Score: 4.6

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

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

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.9

Threat Score: 2.7

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:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_domain_name_system, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_global_traffic_manager, cpe:/h:f5:big-ip

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/BIG-IP/hotfix, Host/BIG-IP/modules, Host/BIG-IP/version, Settings/ParanoidReport

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/20/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-42534