CVE-2026-78227 PUBLISHED

Use-after-free in DoQ stream output buffer on reset re-transmission

Assigner: NLnet Labs
Reserved: 07.09.2026 Published: 16.09.2026 Updated: 16.09.2026

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.22.0 up to and including 1.26.1, has a use-after-free vulnerability when compiled for DNS-over-QUIC support with '--with-libngtcp2'. Each DoQ stream owns an output buffer that holds the DNS response. ngtcp2's retransmission buffer keeps a shallow pointer into the output buffer for as long as a STREAM frame may be resent. On a client RESET_STREAM, the output buffer is freed but ngtcp2 still holds the matching retransmission entries. The next PTO timeout makes ngtcp2 re-encode the STREAM frame and copy from the freed buffer. A malicious actor that can query Unbound over DoQ and that withholds ACKs, sends RESET_STREAM, and waits for PTO, reaches this use-after-free with no privilege. This leads to retransmissions against freed memory and eventually an abnormal server exit under a 20-query spray.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
CVSS Score: 6.5

compiled with DNS-over-QUIC support

Product Status

Vendor NLnet Labs
Product Unbound
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1.22.0 to 1.26.1 (excl.)

Solutions

This issue is fixed starting with version 1.26.1

Credits

  • Yuqi Qiu (Nankai University, AOSP Lab) finder
  • Xiang Li (Nankai University, AOSP Lab) finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-416: Use After Free CWE