CVE-2026-123607
Received Received - Intake

Hickory DNS NSEC3 Closest-Encloser Proof Validation Loop

Publication date: 2026-11-08

Last updated on: 2026-11-08

Assigner: VulnCheck

Description
Hickory DNS hickory-proto 0.25.0-alpha.3 through 0.25.2 and hickory-net before 0.26.1 contain an unbounded loop vulnerability in DnssecDnsHandle NSEC3 closest-encloser proof validation when the SOA owner is not an ancestor of the QNAME. Upstream attackers can return NoData or NXDomain responses with a cross-zone SOA record to panic debug builds or exhaust memory in release builds.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-11-08
Last Modified
2026-11-08
Generated
2026-11-08
AI Q&A
2026-11-08
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-123607
EUVD
EUVD-2026-119366

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 2 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
hickory dns From 0.25.0 (inc) to 0.25.2 (inc)
hickory dns to 0.26.1 (exc)

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Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-835 The product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an unbounded loop issue in Hickory DNS versions hickory-proto 0.25.0-alpha.3 through 0.25.2 and hickory-net before 0.26.1. It occurs during DnssecDnsHandle NSEC3 closest-encloser proof validation when the SOA owner is not an ancestor of the QNAME. Attackers can exploit this by returning NoData or NXDomain responses with a cross-zone SOA record to cause panic in debug builds or memory exhaustion in release builds.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to denial of service (DoS) conditions. In debug builds, it may cause the application to panic and crash. In release builds, it can exhaust system memory, leading to degraded performance or complete service unavailability. Attackers can remotely trigger this issue without authentication.

Mitigation Strategies

Update Hickory DNS to versions hickory-proto 0.25.3 or later and hickory-net to 0.26.1 or later to address the unbounded loop vulnerability in NSEC3 closest-encloser proof validation.

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