FreeBSD VuXML: Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection

unbound -- Cache poisoning via the ECS-enabled Rebirthday Attack

Affected packages
1.6.1 < unbound < 1.23.0

Details

VuXML ID e27ee4fc-cdc9-45a1-8242-09898cdbdc91
Discovery 2025-07-16
Entry 2025-07-18

sep@nlnetlabs.nl reports:

A multi-vendor cache poisoning vulnerability named 'Rebirthday Attack' has been discovered in caching resolvers that support EDNS Client Subnet (ECS). Unbound is also vulnerable when compiled with ECS support, i.e., '--enable-subnet', AND configured to send ECS information along with queries to upstream name servers, i.e., at least one of the 'send-client-subnet', 'client-subnet-zone' or 'client-subnet-always-forward' options is used. Resolvers supporting ECS need to segregate outgoing queries to accommodate for different outgoing ECS information. This re-opens up resolvers to a birthday paradox attack (Rebirthday Attack) that tries to match the DNS transaction ID in order to cache non-ECS poisonous replies.

References

CVE Name CVE-2025-5994
URL https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-5994