CVE-2026-26076 ntpd-rs affected by excessive CPU load from malformed packets
Attackers can cause excessive CPU load and degraded performance in ntpd-rs servers by sending malformed NTS packets when NTS is enabled.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-26076?
CVE-2026-26076 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in pendulum-project ntpd-rs, published on 12 Feb 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
ntpd-rs is a full-featured implementation of the Network Time Protocol. Prior to 1.7.1, an attacker can remotely induce moderate increases (2-4 times above normal) in cpu usage. When having NTS enabled on an ntpd-rs server, an attacker can create malformed NTS packets that take significantly more effort for the server to respond to by requesting a large number of cookies. This can lead to degraded server performance even when a server could otherwise handle the load. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.7.1.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-26076?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Tweedegolf Ntpd-Rs.
How do I fix CVE-2026-26076?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-26076 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-26076 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in pendulum-project ntpd-rs
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-26076, GHSA-c7j7-rmvr-fjmv, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-26076.