CVE-2026-85501 PUBLISHED

Retrap: Novel Vulnerabilities to launch Algorithmic Complexity Attacks on DNSSEC

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

Novel vulnerabilities to launch algorithmic complexity attacks on DNSSEC have been researched under the term 'ReTrap'. These result in degradation of service when malicious zones are used to serve the algorithmic complexity vulnerabilities. NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including 1.26.0 is vulnerable to some of them. TagTrap, where the triple(Zone, Algo, KeyTag) matching mechanism introduces a significant attack vector when resolvers handle malicious responses containing numerous mismatched DNSKEY, RRSIG, and DS record. DelegationTrap, where constructing the chain-of-trust requires iterative validation of DNSKEY and DS records from the root zone downward. For deeply nested domains, this results in significant computational overhead. NsecTrap, where responses with excessive invalid NSEC records compel the resolver to validate each one. AdditionalTrap, where Unbound by default would try to DNSSEC validate the ADDITIONAL section as well. This can be exploited to waste validation resources by malicious users.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
CVSS Score: 5.3

Product Status

Vendor NLnet Labs
Product Unbound
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 1.26.1 (excl.)

Solutions

This issue is fixed starting with version 1.26.1

Credits

  • Zuyao Xu (Nankai University, AOSP Lab) finder
  • Xiang Li (Nankai University, AOSP Lab) finder
  • Qifan Zhang (Palo Alto Networks) finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling CWE