CVE-2025-40778 Cache poisoning attacks with unsolicited RRs
High 8.6
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-40778 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2025-40778 is a high-severity vulnerability in ISC BIND 9, published on 22 Oct 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-40778 exists.
Affected product: ISC BIND 9. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.
Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40778/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40778/index.md)
Attackers can poison the DNS cache by injecting forged records due to lenient validation of unsolicited answers in BIND.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-40778?
CVE-2025-40778 is a high-severity vulnerability in ISC BIND 9, published on 22 Oct 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Under certain circumstances, BIND is too lenient when accepting records from answers, allowing an attacker to inject forged data into the cache. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.11.0 through 9.16.50, 9.18.0 through 9.18.39, 9.20.0 through 9.20.13, 9.21.0 through 9.21.12, 9.11.3-S1 through 9.16.50-S1, 9.18.11-S1 through 9.18.39-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.13-S1.
Weakness: CWE-349
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40778?
Linux distribution packages (40)
bind AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-chroot AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-export-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-export-libs AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs-lite AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-license AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-lite-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11 AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-libs AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-utils AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-sdb AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-sdb-chroot AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-utils AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
python3-bind AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-chroot Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-export-libs-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs-lite Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-libs-lite-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-license Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-lite-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-libs-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-utils Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-pkcs11-utils-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-sdb Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-sdb-chroot Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-sdb-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
bind-utils Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 32:9.11.36-16.el8_10.6 |
How do I fix CVE-2025-40778?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2025-40778 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-40778 exists.
Public exploit code: 3 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2025-40778, ALSA-2025:19835, AZL-68727, AZL-68736, BELL-CVE-2025-40778, CLSA-2025-1764321323 and 22 more.