Vulnerability-Lookup

RUSTSEC-2026-0119 (GHSA-Q2QQ-HMJ6-3WPP)

Vulnerability from osv_rustsec – Published: 2026-05-01 12:00 – Updated: 2026-05-07 08:56 – Source website

Summary

CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n²) name compression

Details

During message encoding, hickory-proto's BinEncoder stores pointers to labels that are candidates for name compression in a Vec<(usize, Vec<u8>)>. The name compression logic then searches for matches with a linear scan.

A malicious message with many records can both introduce many candidate labels, and invoke this linear scan many times. This can amplify CPU exhaustion in DoS attacks.

This is similar to CVE-2024-8508.

We recommend all affected users update to hickory-proto 0.26.1 for the fix.

References

URL

Type

	https://crates.io/crates/hickory-proto	PACKAGE
	https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0119.html	ADVISORY
	https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/securi…	ADVISORY

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "categories": [
          "denial-of-service"
        ],
        "cvss": null,
        "informational": null
      },
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "affected_functions": null,
        "affects": {
          "arch": [],
          "functions": [],
          "os": []
        }
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "crates.io",
        "name": "hickory-proto",
        "purl": "pkg:cargo/hickory-proto"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0.3.1"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.26.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "versions": []
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "license": "CC-BY-4.0"
  },
  "details": "During message encoding, `hickory-proto`\u0027s `BinEncoder` stores pointers to\nlabels that are candidates for name compression in a `Vec\u003c(usize, Vec\u003cu8\u003e)\u003e`.\nThe name compression logic then searches for matches with a linear scan.\n\nA malicious message with many records can both introduce many candidate labels,\nand invoke this linear scan many times. This can amplify CPU exhaustion in DoS\nattacks.\n\nThis is similar to\n[CVE-2024-8508](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2024-8508.txt).\n\nWe recommend all affected users update to `hickory-proto` 0.26.1 for the fix.",
  "id": "RUSTSEC-2026-0119",
  "modified": "2026-05-07T08:56:41Z",
  "published": "2026-05-01T12:00:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://crates.io/crates/hickory-proto"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0119.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/security/advisories/GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "CVE-2024-8508"
  ],
  "severity": [],
  "summary": "CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n\u00b2) name compression"
}

CVE-2024-8508 (GCVE-0-2024-8508)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2024-10-03 16:27 – Updated: 2024-11-14 21:02

Title

Unbounded name compression could lead to Denial of Service

Summary

NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.21.0 contains a vulnerability when handling replies with very large RRsets that it needs to perform name compression for. Malicious upstreams responses with very large RRsets can cause Unbound to spend a considerable time applying name compression to downstream replies. This can lead to degraded performance and eventually denial of service in well orchestrated attacks. The vulnerability can be exploited by a malicious actor querying Unbound for the specially crafted contents of a malicious zone with very large RRsets. Before Unbound replies to the query it will try to apply name compression which was an unbounded operation that could lock the CPU until the whole packet was complete. Unbound version 1.21.1 introduces a hard limit on the number of name compression calculations it is willing to do per packet. Packets that need more compression will result in semi-compressed packets or truncated packets, even on TCP for huge messages, to avoid locking the CPU for long. This change should not affect normal DNS traffic.

Severity

5.3 (Medium)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: yes Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2024-10-03 17:11 UTC

CWE

CWE-606 - Unchecked Input for Loop Condition

Assigner

NLnet Labs Scorecard

References

3 references

URL	Tags
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-20…	vendor-advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/10/04/5
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024…

Impacted products

2 products

Vendor	Product	Version
NLnet Labs	Unbound	Affected: 0 , ≤ 1.21.0 (semver)
nlnetlabs	unbound	Affected: 0 , ≤ 1.21.0 (semver) cpe:2.3:a:nlnetlabs:unbound::::::::

Date Public

2024-10-03 00:00

Credits

Toshifumi Sakaguchi

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "affected": [
          {
            "cpes": [
              "cpe:2.3:a:nlnetlabs:unbound:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
            ],
            "defaultStatus": "unknown",
            "product": "unbound",
            "vendor": "nlnetlabs",
            "versions": [
              {
                "lessThanOrEqual": "1.21.0",
                "status": "affected",
                "version": "0",
                "versionType": "semver"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "metrics": [
          {
            "other": {
              "content": {
                "id": "CVE-2024-8508",
                "options": [
                  {
                    "Exploitation": "none"
                  },
                  {
                    "Automatable": "yes"
                  },
                  {
                    "Technical Impact": "partial"
                  }
                ],
                "role": "CISA Coordinator",
                "timestamp": "2024-10-03T17:11:45.971377Z",
                "version": "2.0.3"
              },
              "type": "ssvc"
            }
          }
        ],
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-10-03T17:15:19.533Z",
          "orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
          "shortName": "CISA-ADP"
        },
        "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment"
      },
      {
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-11-14T21:02:40.473Z",
          "orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108",
          "shortName": "CVE"
        },
        "references": [
          {
            "url": "http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/10/04/5"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/11/msg00009.html"
          }
        ],
        "title": "CVE Program Container"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "product": "Unbound",
          "vendor": "NLnet Labs",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "1.21.0",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "credits": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "type": "finder",
          "value": "Toshifumi Sakaguchi"
        }
      ],
      "datePublic": "2024-10-03T00:00:00.000Z",
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "NLnet Labs Unbound up to and including version 1.21.0 contains a vulnerability when handling replies with very large RRsets that it needs to perform name compression for. Malicious upstreams responses with very large RRsets can cause Unbound to spend a considerable time applying name compression to downstream replies. This can lead to degraded performance and eventually denial of service in well orchestrated attacks. The vulnerability can be exploited by a malicious actor querying Unbound for the specially crafted contents of a malicious zone with very large RRsets. Before Unbound replies to the query it will try to apply name compression which was an unbounded operation that could lock the CPU until the whole packet was complete. Unbound version 1.21.1 introduces a hard limit on the number of name compression calculations it is willing to do per packet. Packets that need more compression will result in semi-compressed packets or truncated packets, even on TCP for huge messages, to avoid locking the CPU for long. This change should not affect normal DNS traffic."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 5.3,
            "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "format": "CVSS"
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-606",
              "description": "CWE-606: Unchecked Input for Loop Condition",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2024-10-03T16:27:54.540Z",
        "orgId": "206fc3a0-e175-490b-9eaa-a5738056c9f6",
        "shortName": "NLnet Labs"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "vendor-advisory"
          ],
          "url": "https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2024-8508.txt"
        }
      ],
      "solutions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "This issue is fixed in 1.21.1 and all later versions."
        }
      ],
      "timeline": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2024-07-25T00:00:00.000Z",
          "value": "Issue reported by Toshifumi Sakaguchi"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2024-07-31T00:00:00.000Z",
          "value": "Issue acknowledged by NLnet Labs; mitigation shared with Toshifumi Sakaguchi"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2024-08-01T00:00:00.000Z",
          "value": "Mitigation confirmed by Toshifumi Sakaguchi"
        },
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "time": "2024-10-03T00:00:00.000Z",
          "value": "Fixes released with Unbound 1.21.1"
        }
      ],
      "title": "Unbounded name compression could lead to Denial of Service"
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "206fc3a0-e175-490b-9eaa-a5738056c9f6",
    "assignerShortName": "NLnet Labs",
    "cveId": "CVE-2024-8508",
    "datePublished": "2024-10-03T16:27:54.540Z",
    "dateReserved": "2024-09-06T11:47:59.783Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2024-11-14T21:02:40.473Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.1"
}

GHSA-Q2QQ-HMJ6-3WPP

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-05-07 02:59 – Updated: 2026-05-07 02:59

Summary

hickory-proto vulnerable to CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n²) name compression

Details

A malicious message with many records can both introduce many candidate labels, and invoke this linear scan many times. This can amplify CPU exhaustion in DoS attacks.

This is similar to CVE-2024-8508.

Reporter

Qifan Zhang, Palo Alto Networks

Severity

6.9 (Medium)


                  
                    CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Show details on source website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 0.26.0"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "crates.io",
        "name": "hickory-proto"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0.3.1"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.26.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-407",
      "CWE-770"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "During message encoding, `hickory-proto`\u0027s `BinEncoder` stores pointers to labels that are candidates for name compression in a `Vec\u003c(usize, Vec\u003cu8\u003e)\u003e`. The name compression logic then searches for matches with a linear scan.\n\nA malicious message with many records can both introduce many candidate labels, and invoke this linear scan many times. This can amplify CPU exhaustion in DoS attacks.\n\nThis is similar to [CVE-2024-8508](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2024-8508.txt).\n\n### Reporter\n\nQifan Zhang, Palo Alto Networks",
  "id": "GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp",
  "modified": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
  "published": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/security/advisories/GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0119.html"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "hickory-proto vulnerable to CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n\u00b2) name compression"
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

Related by attack behaviour

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Action not permitted

RUSTSEC-2026-0119 (GHSA-Q2QQ-HMJ6-3WPP)

CVE-2024-8508 (GCVE-0-2024-8508)

GHSA-Q2QQ-HMJ6-3WPP

Reporter

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature

Related by attack behaviour