CVE-2026-12969 Dnsmasq: dnsmasq: out-of-bounds read in find_soa() due to missing extrabytes validation

What is CVE-2026-12969?

CVE-2026-12969 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 23 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

An out-of-bounds read vulnerability exists in dnsmasq's find_soa() function in src/rfc1035.c. When parsing NS section records, extract_name() is called with extrabytes=0, failing to validate that 10 additional bytes exist for fixed-length DNS record fields. A remote attacker controlling a DNS zone can exploit this via a crafted NXDOMAIN response to cause a 10-byte heap out-of-bounds read, potentially accessing stale data from prior transactions.

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-12969?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Redhat Enterprise Linux, Thekelleys Dnsmasq.

How do I fix CVE-2026-12969?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-12969 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12969 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux

• CVE-2018-14667 Red Hat JBoss RichFaces Framework Expression Language Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2021-20325 Missing fixes for CVE-2021-40438 and CVE-2021-26691 in the versions of httpd, as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5.0, causes a securit Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-25011 Memory corruption in libwebp Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-25014 Other in libwebp Critical 9.8
• CVE-2014-3585 Supply chain in redhat-upgrade-tool Critical 9.8

All Redhat Enterprise Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-91164, BELL-CVE-2026-12969, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-12969, ECHO-a259-9ba0-438c, GHSA-wmwj-946w-3m8w, SUSE-SU-2026:22668-1 and 2 more.