CVE-2020-28935: vulnerability in NLnet Labs Unbound
Local symlink attack in Unbound and NSD
Published · Updated
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3Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackepss 0.5%
NLnet Labs Unbound, up to and including version 1.12.0, and NLnet Labs NSD, up to and including version 4.3.3, contain a local vulnerability that would allow for a local symlink attack. When writing the PID file, Unbound and NSD create the file if it is not there, or open an existing file for writing. In case the file was already present, they would follow symlinks if the file happened to be a symlink instead of a regular file. An additional chown of the file would then take place after it was written, making the user Unbound/NSD is supposed to run as the new owner of the file. If an attacker has local access to the user Unbound/NSD runs as, she could create a symlink in place of the PID file pointing to a file that she would like to erase. If then Unbound/NSD is killed and the PID file is not cleared, upon restarting with root privileges, Unbound/NSD will rewrite any file pointed at by the symlink. This is a local vulnerability that could create a Denial of Service of the system Unbound/NSD is running on. It requires an attacker having access to the limited permission user Unbound/NSD runs as and point through the symlink to a critical file on the system.
Related CVEs — NLnet Labs Unbound
In the same product, most dangerous first.
CVE-2024-1931HIGHDenial of service when trimming EDE text on positive repliesEPSS 2.5%CVE-2022-3204HIGHNRDelegation AttackEPSS 1.6%CVE-2026-33278CRITICALPossible arbitrary code execution during DNSSEC validationEPSS 1.4%CVE-2022-30699—Novel "ghost domain names" attack by updating almost expired delegation informationEPSS 1.2%CVE-2022-30698—Novel "ghost domain names" attack by introducing subdomain delegationsEPSS 1.2%CVE-2026-81642CRITICALHeap buffer overflow and possible Remote Code Execution when digesting DNSKEYEPSS 1.0%
References
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/02/msg00017.htmlhttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/03/msg00024.htmlhttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-38https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/nsd/CVE-2020-28935.txthttps://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2020-28935.txt