# CVE-2026-78301: Out-of-zone database nodes can become authoritative zone cuts

> Attackers can inject malformed zones to create fake zone cuts, causing BIND to cache incorrect data and bypass authoritative checks.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2026-78301, AZL-103332, BELL-CVE-2026-78301, CLSA-2026-1792630839, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-78301, ECHO-1eea-cbca-9338, GHSA-wx7p-v693-68jh, MINI-6q92-pfj3-j5fj, MINI-ff9g-4jrh-5rh2, MINI-fgh3-7wxf-r656, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-78301

## What is CVE-2026-78301?

CVE-2026-78301 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ISC BIND 9, published on 16 Sep 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A malformed zone may contain an NS or DNAME node above its origin, which `named` treats as a zone cut. If an attacker inserts a malformed zone into a BIND authoritative server (e.g., via zone transfer), queries for names inside the configured zone then lose authoritative status and return an out-of-zone delegation. On a server that also provides recursion BIND can follow this locally sourced cut and cache attacker-supplied data, affecting names outside the configured zone. This situation persists as long as the malformed zone remains in the zone database.
This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.11.0 through 9.18.50, 9.20.0 through 9.20.27, 9.21.0 through 9.21.25, 9.11.3-S1 through 9.18.50-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.27-S1.

Weakness: CWE-349 (Acceptance of Extraneous Untrusted Data With Trusted Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-78301?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-78301?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-78301 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-78301 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-78301 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-78301 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ISC BIND 9, published on 16 Sep 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-78301 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2026-78301/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-78301/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-78301
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-78301
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-78301

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-78301/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.