CVE-2026-123605hickory-dns improper signature verification
CVE-2026-123605 is a improper signature verification in hickory-dns, rated high (8.7 on CVSS 4.0).
Why this priority: High severity, with no exploitation signal yet.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Deferred
What it is
A cryptographic signature is not checked properly, so forged data is accepted.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, with an ordinary user account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker read or tamper with traffic, or pass a forged message as genuine.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet.
What to do
- Upgrade hickory-dns to 0.26.2 or later.
- Until it is patched, review who holds accounts that can reach it.
Description from NVD
Hickory DNS hickory-proto 0.1 through 0.25.0-alpha.3 and hickory-net before 0.26.2 contain a DNSSEC validation bypass because the validator verifies an RRSIG against the DNSKEY of whatever name appears in its Signer's Name field without checking that this name is the zone containing the RRset. Attackers controlling any secure zone can produce valid signatures over arbitrary records in unrelated zones, which resolvers, recursors, and clients using DnssecDnsHandle accept as authenticated.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- TLS termination and service-to-service channels. The flaw sits on the network path between clients and services.
- Signature checks. The flaw sits on the network path between clients and services.
Trust boundaries in play
- Authenticated network access. An account is needed, so exposure follows who can sign in: customers, partners or staff.
- On the network path between clients and services. An attacker who crosses it can read or tamper with traffic, or pass a forged message as genuine.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does hickory-dns run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.