Hickory DNS DNSSEC Validation DnssecDnsHandle authentication replay

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Hickory DNS and classified as critical. This impacts the function DnssecDnsHandle of the component DNSSEC Validation. Performing a manipulation results in authentication replay. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-123600. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Hickory DNS (the affected version unknown). It has been classified as critical. This affects the function DnssecDnsHandle of the component DNSSEC Validation. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a authentication replay vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-294. A capture-replay flaw exists when the design of the product makes it possible for a malicious user to sniff network traffic and bypass authentication by replaying it to the server in question to the same effect as the original message (or with minor changes). This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Hickory DNS hickory-proto 0.25.0-alpha.3 through 0.25.2 and hickory-net 0.26.0-alpha.1 before 0.26.2 contain a DNSSEC validation flaw in DnssecDnsHandle that accepts NSEC3-signed NODATA responses for zone-apex queries as secure without an NSEC3 record matching the hashed QNAME. On-path attackers or malicious authoritative servers can replay a validly signed non-apex NSEC3 with the zone's signed SOA to serve an authenticated (AD=1) denial of any apex RRtype for the negative-cache TTL.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-123600 since 11/06/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 11/08/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1040 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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• Hickory DNS

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CPE 2.2info

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