Remote DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ) flow-control assertion failure in libngtcp2
CVE-2026-55991 is fixed in unbound on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-55991, released July 28, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.
In NLnet Labs Unbound 1.22.0 up to and including 1.25.1, a remote unauthenticated client can trigger a libngtcp2 assertion (if compiled with assertions on) and terminate the entire Unbound process using a single DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ) connection and one normal DNS query. This is caused by an erroneous error value passed to libngtcp2. When 'ngtcp2_conn_writev_stream()' returns 'NGTCP2_ERR_STREAM_DATA_BLOCKED', Unbound continues to call 'ngtcp2_ccerr_set_application_error()' with a '-1' error value. The 'int' literal '-1' is implicitly converted to the function's 'uint64_t error_code' parameter as '0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF'. The follow-on 'ngtcp2_conn_write_connection_close()' serialises that value as a QUIC variable-length integer; because '2^64-1' exceeds the 62-bit varint ceiling, 'ngtcp2_put_uvarintlen()' fails 'assert(n < 4611686018427387904ULL)' and the whole resolver process aborts. A remote, unauthenticated DoQ client can trigger this deterministically with a single QUIC connection by advertising 'initial_max_stream_data_bidi_local = 1' in its transport parameters and sending one DoQ query without ever reading the stream.
Where it's fixed
| Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | |||
| unbound · Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 1.26.1-0+deb13u1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-55991 | Jul 28, 2026 |
| unbound · Debian 14 | 1.25.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-55991 | Jul 28, 2026 |
| unbound · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 1.25.2-160000.1.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21550-1 | Aug 10, 2026 |
| unbound · sles 16.0 | 1.25.2-160000.1.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23226-1 | Aug 10, 2026 |
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