CVE-2025-5994

High

Description

A multi-vendor cache poisoning vulnerability named 'Rebirthday Attack' has been discovered in caching resolvers that support EDNS Client Subnet (ECS). Unbound is also vulnerable when compiled with ECS support, i.e., '--enable-subnet', AND configured to send ECS information along with queries to upstream name servers, i.e., at least one of the 'send-client-subnet', 'client-subnet-zone' or 'client-subnet-always-forward' options is used. Resolvers supporting ECS need to segregate outgoing queries to accommodate for different outgoing ECS information. This re-opens up resolvers to a birthday paradox attack (Rebirthday Attack) that tries to match the DNS transaction ID in order to cache non-ECS poisonous replies.

SeverityHigh
CVSS8.7
Exploit probability—
ProductUnbound
PublishedJul 16, 2025
First seenJul 16, 2025
Weakness typeCWE-349CWE-349

How to fix

Update
  • NLnet Labs Unbound1.23.0 or later

Affected products

ProductAffected versionsFixed in
NLnet Labs Unbound1.6.2 ≤ v < 1.23.01.23.0

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