CVE-2026-82717
nlnetlabs unbound
Summary
In NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including 1.26.0, a vulnerability was found in that can progressively corrupt heap memory and under certain systems and compilation options could lead to remote code execution. The vulnerability starts when CNAME synthesis during an upstream response needs to enforce(rewrite) a max TTL value in the packet buffer. Coupled with a compression pointer that points to the overwritten value and invalidates the domain name, it leads to an error path that does not properly move the buffer position and allows for the heap buffer overflow. Since this is heavily reliant on heap memory layout, results are memory corruption that eventually leads to a crash and under specific systems and compilation options remote code execution.
Published 2026-09-16 · first seen here 2026-10-10
Analysis & write-ups
No technical write-up from a research team yet. Contact Zero checks Unit 42, Google/Mandiant, Microsoft, Talos, CrowdStrike, Rapid7, watchTowr and others several times a day, plus NVD and CISA reference links.
Where it shows in your logs
Server or web application · Memory corruption (overflow, use-after-free) medium confidence
What to look for
- Crashes or restarts of the vulnerable process (Windows Error Reporting, core dumps), especially repeated ones
- The vulnerable process spawning children it never normally starts
- The application's process (w3wp.exe, java, tomcat, node, php-fpm, httpd, python) starting shells or LOLBins (cmd, powershell, sh, bash, curl, wget, certutil)
- New script files in web roots (.jsp, .aspx, .php): a web shell
- Requests to unusual URLs on the application from internet IPs right before any of the above
- Outbound connections from the server to new external IPs
Data sources
Web server and WAF logs · ATT&CK DS0015 Application Log Content
- Sentinel
W3CIISLogAppServiceHTTPLogsAzureDiagnostics (Application Gateway / Front Door WAF)_Im_WebSession- Splunk
Web.Webms:iis:autoaccess_combinedWAF / proxy sourcetypes- CrowdStrike
Falcon Next-Gen SIEM: third-party web / WAF / proxy logs
Process creation · ATT&CK DS0009 Process Creation
- Sentinel
DeviceProcessEventsSecurityEvent (4688)Sysmon Event ID 1_Im_ProcessCreate- Splunk
Endpoint.ProcessesXmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/OperationalWinEventLog:Security (4688)- CrowdStrike
ProcessRollup2SyntheticProcessRollup2
File creation · ATT&CK DS0022 File Creation
- Sentinel
DeviceFileEventsSysmon Event ID 11_Im_FileEvent- Splunk
Endpoint.FilesystemSysmon Event ID 11- CrowdStrike
NewExecutableWrittenNewScriptWritten*FileWritten events
Network connections · ATT&CK DS0029 Network Connection Creation / Network Traffic Flow
- Sentinel
DeviceNetworkEventsCommonSecurityLog (firewall)_Im_NetworkSession- Splunk
Network_Traffic.All_TrafficFirewall sourcetypes (pan:traffic, fortigate_traffic, cisco:asa)- CrowdStrike
NetworkConnectIP4NetworkReceiveAcceptIP4NetworkConnectIP6
A generic baseline worked out from the product type and weakness (CWE-122), not a detection. Check table and field names against your environment. Hunt queries for Sigma, Splunk, Sentinel and CrowdStrike are coming.