Lucene search
+L

Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-77860

🗓️ 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00Reported by TenableType 
nessus
 nessus
🔗 www.tenable.com👁 9 Views

NLnetLabs Unbound 1.20.0-1.26.0 serve-expired double decrement bypasses DNSBomb countermeasures.

Related
Refs
Code
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##

include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(346366);
  script_version("1.4");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2026/09/18");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2026-77860");

  script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-77860");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.

  - In NLnetLabs Unbound 1.20.0 up to and including 1.26.0, a vulnerability on the 'serve-expired' code path
    can cause a double decrement on the 'wait-limit' counter per client IP essentially bypassing one of the
    counter measures that was introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). A malicious actor can exploit this by
    controlling an authoritative zone with short TTL, so cached entries expire quickly. Each 'slow' query, one
    the attacker's authoritative never answers, is followed by one query for an expired cached name, which is
    answered immediately via the 'serve-expired' path and decrements the counter twice. This second query was
    named 'pump'. By alternating slow queries and pumps, the attacker keeps the per-client counter at or below
    the configured 'wait-limit' indefinitely, and can hold an arbitrary number of pending queries from a
    single source IP, up to the global mesh quota (num-queries-per-thread); eventually bypassing one of the
    counter measures introduced for DNSBomb (CVE-2024-33655). This vulnerability is present on the 'serve-
    expired' code path. (CVE-2026-77860)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-77860");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-77860");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2026-77860");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2026/09/16");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2026/09/16");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:unbound");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:unbound");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Misc.");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2026 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
  script_require_ports("Host/OS/Debian Linux-12", "Host/OS/Debian Linux-13", "Host/OS/Debian Linux-14", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-14.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-16.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-18.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-20.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-22.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-24.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-26.04");

  exit(0);
}

if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

include('linux_unpatched.inc');

var distro_constraints_array = {
  "Debian Linux-12": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "12",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Debian Linux-13": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "13",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Debian Linux-14": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "14",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-22.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "22.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-24.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "24.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-26.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "26.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-14.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "14.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound2"},
          {"reference": "python-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-16.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "16.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound2"},
          {"reference": "python-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-18.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "18.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound2"},
          {"reference": "python-unbound"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-20.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "20.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "libunbound-dev"},
          {"reference": "libunbound8"},
          {"reference": "python-unbound"},
          {"reference": "python3-unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound"},
          {"reference": "unbound-anchor"},
          {"reference": "unbound-host"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');

var third_party_support = get_kb_item('Host/OS/extended-third-party');
if (!empty_or_null(third_party_support)) {
    var third_party_vendors = distro_constraints_values['third_party'];
    if (!empty_or_null(third_party_vendors)) {
        var vendor;
        foreach vendor (third_party_vendors) {
            if (vendor == third_party_support) exit(0, 'A third party management patch is available for this vulnerability from ' + vendor + '.\n');
        }
    }
}

var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);

if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
  security_report_v4(
      port       : 0,
      severity   : SECURITY_NOTE,
      extra      : report
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}

Data

Build on a solid foundation with Vulners data

We provide the essential building blocks for cybersecurity solutions with comprehensive, structured, and constantly updated vulnerability and exploits data

Api

Power your application with Vulners API

The Vulners REST API offers reliable, high-performance access to vulnerability intelligence, with 99.9% SLA uptime and CDN-backed data delivery for seamless global access

App

Assess and manage vulnerabilities with Vulners tools

Built on top of Vulners' database and SDK, end-user solutions give security professionals and developers lightweight and powerful tools for vulnerability remediation