CVE intelligence

CVE-2026-40622

Vulnerability intelligence

Published May 20, 2026Sources checked Oct 28, 2026

7.5HIGHCVSS out of 10

What this means

Review the available evidence

CVE-2026-40622 and is rated High severity with a CVSS score of 7.5. It is not in the current CISA KEV record we collected. That does not prove exploitation has not occurred.

What to do next

Remediation and response

Microsoft Security Response Center guidance

Vendor revision: Jul 23, 2026

CBL-Mariner Releases

Vendor-listed releases

1.25.2-1

Microsoft Security Response Center guidance

Vendor revision: May 23, 2026

CBL-Mariner Releases

Vendor-listed releases

1.25.1-1

CISA KEVNot listedBased on the latest collected catalog

EPSS0.1%Estimated 30-day exploitation probability

Ransomware useNot markedCISA KEV ransomware field

Threat actors0Source-linked actor relationships

Overview

What is CVE-2026-40622?

NLnet Labs Unbound 1.16.2 up to and including version 1.25.0 has a vulnerability of the 'ghost domain names' family of attacks that could extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value. Similar to other 'ghost domain names' attacks, an adversary needs to control a (ghost) zone and be able to query a vulnerable Unbound.

A single client NS query can cause Unbound to overwrite the cached expired parent-side referral NS rrset with the child-side apex NS rrset and essentially extend the ghost domain window by up to one cached TTL configured value ('cache-max-ttl'). In configurations where 'harden-referral-path: yes' is used (non-default configuration), no client NS query is required since Unbound implicitly performs that query.

Unbound 1.25.1 contains a patch with a fix that does not allow extension of TTLs for (parent) NS records regardless of their trust.

Source: NVD