Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS : Unbound vulnerabilities (USN-8946-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 370514

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-8946-1 advisory.

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain TCP connections. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound to consume resources, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-80225)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain DNS responses. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to crash Unbound, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-81634)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain DNS responses during DNSSEC validation. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound to consume resources, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2026-85501)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled outgoing network ports. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to crash Unbound, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-50252)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain DNSCrypt packets. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to crash Unbound, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
(CVE-2026-40691)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain cached DNS responses. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to poison Unbound's cache. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-44690)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain DNS-over-QUIC connections. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound to consume resources, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-32665)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled certain EDNS options. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to crash Unbound, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-55973)

Elias Heftrig, Haya Schulmann, Niklas Vogel, and Michael Waidner discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled validating DNSSEC messages. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound to consume resources, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. (CVE-2023-50387)

It was discovered that Unbound incorrectly handled preparing an NSEC3 closest encloser proof. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Unbound to consume resources, leading to a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
(CVE-2023-50868)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

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

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8946-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 370514

File Name: ubuntu_USN-8946-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 10/22/2026

Updated: 10/22/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.8

Percentile: 96.54

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-50252

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.3

Temporal Score: 8.4

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

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

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.1

Threat Score: 5.7

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libunbound2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libunbound8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-unbound, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python3-unbound, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:unbound-anchor, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:unbound-host, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:unbound

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 10/21/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/19/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-50387, CVE-2023-50868, CVE-2026-32665, CVE-2026-40691, CVE-2026-44690, CVE-2026-50252, CVE-2026-55973, CVE-2026-80225, CVE-2026-81634, CVE-2026-85501

IAVA: 2026-A-1070-S

USN: 8946-1