CVE-2026-33278
Published: 20 May 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-33278 is a critical-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Nlnetlabs Unbound. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 40.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Use-after-free exploits that achieve arbitrary code execution are blocked or significantly hardened by non-executable pages and ASLR.
NVD Description
NLnet Labs Unbound 1.19.1 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability in the DNSSEC validator that enables denial of service and possible remote code execution as a result of deep copying a data structure and erroneously overwriting a…
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destination pointer. An adversary can exploit the vulnerability by controlling a malicious signed zone and querying a vulnerable Unbound. When DS sub-queries need to suspend validation due to NSEC3 computational budget exhaustion (introduced in Unbound 1.19.1), Unbound deep-copies response messages to preserve them across memory region teardown. A struct-assignment bug overwrites the destination's pointer with the source's pointer. After the sub-query region is freed, the resumed validator dereferences this dangling pointer, triggering a crash or potentially enabling arbitrary code execution. Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix to preserve the correct pointer when deep copying the data structure.
Deeper analysisAI
Automated synthesis unavailable for this CVE.
Details
- CWE(s)
Affected Products
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-31075
Regulatory context (EU CRA / NIS2 / DORA / UK NIS Regulations)
EU Cyber Resilience Act — coordinated disclosure
Critical and high-severity vulnerabilities in products with digital elements may trigger coordinated-disclosure obligations under the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA, Regulation 2024/2847). Manufacturers placing products on the EU market must notify ENISA and the relevant CSIRTs without undue delay once active exploitation is known.