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ISC BIND 9 CVE-2026-13204

| EUVDEUVD-2026-47712 HIGH
Reachable Assertion (CWE-617)
2026-07-22 isc GHSA-89q8-qc36-7m58
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: isc
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Severity by source

Vendor (isc) PRIMARY
7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.5 HIGH

Network-reachable, unauthenticated crash of a validating resolver with no user interaction; only availability is affected, so C:N/I:N/A:H and PR:N, and attacker-controlled zone crafting keeps AC:L.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
HIGH
qualitative
Red Hat
7.5 HIGH
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (isc).

CVSS VectorVendor: isc

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Jul 22, 2026 - 15:19 vuln.today
CVE Published
Jul 22, 2026 - 14:15 cve.org
HIGH 7.5

DescriptionCVE.org

If a provably insecure domain is covered by both an NSEC and NSEC3 record at the parent, and there exist an RRSIG for only one of these types, then BIND may exit unexpectedly with an assertion while validating this proof. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.11.0 through 9.18.50, 9.20.0 through 9.20.24, 9.21.0 through 9.21.23, 9.11.3-S1 through 9.18.50-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.24-S1.

AnalysisAI

Remote denial of service in ISC BIND 9 lets an attacker crash a validating resolver via a maliciously crafted DNSSEC proof. When a provably-insecure delegation is covered by both NSEC and NSEC3 records at the parent but only one of those types carries an RRSIG, BIND hits a reachable assertion (CWE-617) and terminates while validating the insecurity proof. No public exploit is identified at time of analysis and it is not listed in CISA KEV, but the network-reachable, unauthenticated attack surface and named process termination make this a high-availability-impact issue for recursive resolvers.

Technical ContextAI

The flaw lives in BIND 9's DNSSEC validation logic, specifically the code path that establishes a 'provably insecure' (opt-out / unsigned delegation) proof. DNSSEC parents prove the absence of a secure delegation using authenticated denial-of-existence records - either NSEC or the hashed NSEC3 form. Each such record is normally accompanied by an RRSIG that signs it. This vulnerability arises when the same insecure domain is simultaneously covered by both an NSEC and an NSEC3 record, yet an RRSIG exists for only one of the two types. The validator reaches an internal state its authors assumed impossible and trips an assertion (INSIST/REQUIRE) rather than gracefully rejecting the malformed proof, causing the named daemon to abort. CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion) captures the root cause: a defensive consistency check that becomes a remote crash primitive because untrusted, attacker-influenceable data can drive execution into it. The affected component is BIND 9 as identified by cpe:2.3:a:isc:bind_9, including both the open-source and subscription (-S) editions.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to BIND 9.20.26 (from the 9.20.x line) or 9.21.24 (from the 9.21.x line), available at https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.20.26 and https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.21.24; subscription-edition users should obtain the corresponding fixed -S build from ISC. End-of-life branches such as 9.11.x and 9.18.x should be migrated to a supported patched release rather than expecting a fix. If immediate patching is not possible, the most direct compensating control is to disable DNSSEC validation (set dnssec-validation no; in named.conf), which removes the vulnerable code path entirely - but this trade-off forfeits protection against DNS spoofing and forged records and is only acceptable as a short-term stopgap. Additionally, restrict recursion to trusted clients (allow-recursion / allow-query-cache) to reduce who can trigger lookups, and front the service with resolver redundancy or automatic named restart (process supervisor) so a crash causes failover rather than sustained outage. Consult the ISC advisory at https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2026-13204 for authoritative guidance.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 Fixed
openSUSE Leap 16.0 Fixed
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed

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CVE-2026-13204 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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