Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessReach open validating resolver over network
-
DeliveryFlood random subdomains of signed zone
-
ExploitOutpace DNSSEC validation throughput
-
ExecutionAccumulate unbounded in-flight validation state
-
PersistExhaust memory past max-cache-size
-
Impactnamed crash / DNS outage
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Resource allocation limits
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires the target BIND 9 instance to be operating as a DNSSEC-validating resolver and to be resolving names in a DNSSEC-signed zone that the attacker queries with random, nonexistent subdomains. The attacker must be able to reach the resolver over the network (AV:N, PR:N - unauthenticated per the CVSS vector) and, critically, must sustain a query rate faster than the resolver can complete DNSSEC validation, which demands adequate bandwidth/query-generation capacity. Exploitation is limited where DNSSEC validation is disabled, where recursion is restricted to trusted clients by ACL, or where effective per-client rate limiting is in place; resolvers open to the internet without such controls are most at risk. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 7.5) reflects a network-reachable, unauthenticated availability-only impact, which matches the description. Real risk is moderated by prerequisites the raw score does not surface: the resolver must be DNSSEC-validating (common but not universal), the target must be a DNSSEC-signed zone, and the attacker must sustain a query rate exceeding validation throughput - implying meaningful bandwidth/effort rather than a single packet. There is no EPSS score, no POC, and no KEV listing provided, so this is a credible operator-impacting DoS but not evidence of widespread active exploitation; treat it as high-priority patching for internet-facing or high-value resolvers rather than an emergency zero-day. The AC:L rating is arguable - success depends on out-pacing validation, which some environments would consider added complexity; the vendor's A:H is consistent with a full memory-exhaustion crash. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker points a query generator at a victim's publicly reachable DNSSEC-validating resolver and sends a high-rate stream of queries for randomly generated, nonexistent subdomains (e.g. a1b2c3.victim-signed-zone.example) of a DNSSEC-signed zone. Because each query spawns a validation that outpaces completion, in-flight state accumulates and named's memory climbs far past max-cache-size until the process is killed by the OS or the host is exhausted, denying DNS service to all legitimate users. No exploit code is publicly identified, and network-level (AV:N) low-complexity access is all that is required. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 22, 2026
Denial of service in ISC BIND 9 lets a remote unauthenticated attacker exhaust resolver memory by flooding a DNSSEC-validating resolver with random-subdomain ('water torture') queries against a DNSSEC-signed zone. When queries arrive faster than the resolver can complete validation, memory consumption grows unbounded - orders of magnitude beyond the configured max-cache-size - eventually crashing the service. Affects a broad span of 9.11 through 9.21 release and supported-preview (-S) branches; no public exploit identified at time of analysis and it is not listed in CISA KEV.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to BIND 9.20.26 (https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.20.26) or 9.21.24 (https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.21.24), per the ISC advisory at https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2026-11622; supported-preview users should move to the corresponding fixed -S build. If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by restricting recursion to trusted clients (allow-recursion / allow-query-cache ACLs) so arbitrary internet hosts cannot drive the query flood, and apply per-client rate limiting to throttle the random-subdomain traffic - noting these controls limit but do not fully eliminate memory growth and can affect legitimate clients if scoped too tightly. Monitoring named's resident memory with alerting well below system limits gives early warning while the upgrade is scheduled.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
BIND 9 (cpe:2.3:a:isc:bind_9) is the reference open-source DNS implementation, widely used as a recursive/validating resolver. The flaw is a CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) condition in the DNSSEC validation path: each pending validation for a nonexistent random subdomain of a signed zone holds state and memory while the resolver fetches and cryptographically verifies the signed denial-of-existence (NSEC/NSEC3) records. The max-cache-size parameter bounds the answer cache but does not bound this transient in-flight validation state, so a sustained backlog of unfinished validations accumulates memory the operator believed was capped.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remotely reachable, unauthenticated flood (AV:N/PR:N) against a validating resolver causes memory-exhaustion outage with no confidentiality or integrity impact, so availability-only A:H.
Primary rating from Vendor (isc).
CVSS VectorVendor: isc
DescriptionCVE.org
A DNSSEC validating resolver that is under a random subdomain attack against a DNSSEC-signed zone can suffer from runaway memory usage. The attacker needs to be able to send queries faster than the resolver can perform validation. The increased memory usage can be orders of magnitude beyond the limit configured in the max-cache-size parameter. 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.
Executive ViewAI
ISC BIND 9 versions 9.11 through 9.21 are vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to crash DNS resolvers, impacting any organization whose infrastructure depends on these systems for critical DNS resolution services. The vulnerability specifically targets DNSSEC-validating resolvers through query flooding, making affected systems unavailable until service restart or patching. With a vendor patch available, this should be treated as a critical infrastructure priority to prevent DNS-driven service outages.
Apply vendor patch. Pending patch deployment, implement DNS query rate limiting, restrict resolver access to authorized networks via firewall rules, and temporarily disable DNSSEC validation if operationally feasible.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
BIND resolver servers performing DNSSEC validation can be forced into excessive CPU consumption when encountering a mali
Memory exhaustion in BIND 9 resolver allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause denial of service by querying spec
Memory corruption in ISC BIND 9's DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) implementation lets remote attackers trigger a use-after-free (CW
DNSSEC validation bypass in ISC BIND 9 resolvers (9.11.0 through 9.21.23 and S-editions) allows an attacker controlling
Memory corruption in ISC BIND 9's GSS-TSIG handling allows an on-path attacker who captures a previously signed UDP mess
Remote denial of service in ISC BIND 9 lets an attacker crash a validating resolver via a maliciously crafted DNSSEC pro
Denial of service in ISC BIND 9 resolvers (9.20.0-9.20.24, 9.21.0-9.21.23, and 9.20.9-S1-9.20.24-S1) lets remote unauthe
Cache poisoning in ISC BIND 9 recursive resolvers allows an attacker who controls an authoritative zone to inject forged
RPZ policy bypass and remote denial-of-service in ISC BIND 9 resolvers lets unauthenticated attackers defeat Response Po
Remote denial of service in ISC BIND 9 lets an off-path attacker crash a recursive resolver by controlling the timing an
Denial of service in ISC BIND 9 recursive resolvers affects versions 9.11.0 through 9.18.50, 9.20.0 through 9.20.27, 9.2
Remote denial of service in ISC BIND 9 lets an attacker-controlled (or spoofing-capable) authoritative DNS server crash
Same technique Denial Of Service
View allVendor 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 |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Client Tools for SLE Micro 5 | Affected |
| SUSE Multi-Linux Manager Client Tools for SLE Micro 5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS Extended Security | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 12 SP2-CLIENT | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1-LTSS | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-BCL | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-ESPOS | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-LTSS | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-BCL | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-ESPOS | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-LTSS | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP1 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP2 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 9 | Affected |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| SUSE Multi Linux Manager Tools Beta SLE-Micro-5 | Affected |
| SUSE Multi Linux Manager Tools SLE-Micro-5 | Affected |
| suse/bind | Affected |
| suse/bind:9 | Affected |
EUVD-2026-47708
GHSA-g5c7-92qw-5486
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB