Live › vulnerability › CVE-2026-79981
Go to dashboardThe Zephyr DNS stub resolver sends every query from a single fixed UDP source port and accepts replies after checking only the 16-bit transaction ID, without checking the source address. An attacker on the same network segment or able to reach the device over UDP can flood forged answers and win the race to make the device resolve an attacker-chosen address.
Summary written from the sources below. Check the originals before acting.
First seen by InfraStack 2026-10-23 21:57 UTC. All times on this page are UTC.
Embedded and IoT devices built on Zephyr that use the DNS stub resolver to look up hosts, especially on shared LAN, Wi-Fi or mesh segments or with globally routable addresses. Applications that validate TLS certificates for the resolved endpoint are largely protected, and multicast DNS and LLMNR are not affected by this change.
No product ranges from the sources yet.
CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER) and whether CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER_RANDOMIZE_SOURCE_PORT is disabled or absent in the build configurationdns_randomize_source_port(): unknownCONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER_RANDOMIZE_SOURCE_PORT enabled (default y)Each row is the first time that source carried this signal. The analyst’s rows are its own findings.
The DNS stub resolver in subsys/net/lib/dns/resolve.c binds one UDP socket per configured server when the resolver context is initialised (dns_resolve_init_locked() -> register_dispatcher() -> dns_dispatcher_register()), with the local port left at 0 so the stack picks an ephemeral port exactly once. dns_write() then sends every subsequent query from that same socket without re-binding, so the source port is constant for the lifetime of the resolver context while only the 16-bit transaction identifier (ctx->queries[i].id, drawn with sys_rand16_get()) varies per query. RFC 5452 section 9.2 requires both to vary; with a fixed port, an off-path attacker has to guess only the identifier.
The stable port is cheap to learn. Any single observed query reveals it permanently, and it can also be found by probing the ephemeral UDP range: subsys/net/ip/connection.c answers unmatched unicast UDP with an ICMP port-unreachable, so the resolver's socket is the one port in that range that stays silent. Acceptance of a reply is decided solely by get_slot_by_id() matching the transaction identifier and a CRC-16 of the queried name — the reply's source address is never checked (dispatcher_cb() does ARG_UNUSED(addr)), so forged answers need not even be spoofed to appear to come from the configured server; they only need to reach the resolver's port.
An attacker with UDP reachability to the device (same LAN, Wi-Fi or mesh segment, or a globally routable device address) can therefore flood answers for a predictable query name across the 16-bit identifier space during a query window and race the legitimate server. A win makes the application resolve an attacker-chosen address, and with CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER_CACHE enabled the forged record is retained for its attacker-chosen TTL. The attack still requires winning that race, and applications that validate TLS certificates for the resolved endpoint are largely protected.
The fix draws a fresh local port before each query to a server that has nothing outstanding: dns_randomize_source_port() unregisters the dispatcher, closes and reopens the socket, and re-registers it bound to port 0 so the system selects a new port, raising the per-query guessing space from roughly 16 to roughly 31 bits. Multicast DNS and LLMNR are excluded because their ports are protocol-fixed. The behaviour is controlled by CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER_RANDOMIZE_SOURCE_PORT (default y).
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