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CVE-2026-78301: Out-of-zone database nodes can become authoritative zone cuts

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-09-16 · updated 2026-10-26
• Weakness: CWE-349

Description

A malformed zone may contain an NS or DNAME node above its origin, which `named` treats as a zone cut. If an attacker inserts a malformed zone into a BIND authoritative server (e.g., via zone transfer), queries for names inside the configured zone then lose authoritative status and return an out-of-zone delegation. On a server that also provides recursion BIND can follow this locally sourced cut and cache attacker-supplied data, affecting names outside the configured zone. This situation persists as long as the malformed zone remains in the zone database. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.11.0 through 9.18.50, 9.20.0 through 9.20.27, 9.21.0 through 9.21.25, 9.11.3-S1 through 9.18.50-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.27-S1.

Affected products

• ISC BIND: from 9.11.0 through 9.18.50; from 9.20.0 through 9.20.27; from 9.21.0 through 9.21.25; from 9.11.3-S1 through 9.18.50-S1; from 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.27-S1

References

• https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.20.29
• https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.21.26
• https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2026-78301

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