CVE-2026-35579 | CoreDNS TSIG authentication bypass on gRPC, QUIC, DoH, and DoH3 transports

Exp

CoreDNS is a DNS server written in Go. In versions prior to 1.14.3, the gRPC, QUIC, DoH, and DoH3 transport implementations incorrectly handle TSIG authentication. For gRPC and QUIC, the server checks whether the TSIG key name exists in the configuration but never calls dns.TsigVerify() to validate the HMAC. If the key name matches a configured key, the tsigStatus field remains nil and the tsig plugin treats the request as successfully authenticated regardless of the MAC value. For DoH and DoH3, the issue is more severe: the DoHWriter.TsigStatus() method unconditionally returns nil, and the server never inspects the TSIG record at all. Any request containing a TSIG record is treated as authenticated over DoH and DoH3, even if the key name is invalid and the MAC is arbitrary. An unauthenticated network attacker can exploit this to bypass TSIG-protected functionality such as AXFR/IXFR zone transfers, dynamic DNS updates, or other TSIG-gated plugin behavior. The DoH and DoH3 variants have a lower exploitation bar because the attacker does not need to know a valid TSIG key name. This issue has been fixed in version 1.14.3. As a workaround, disable gRPC, QUIC, DoH, and DoH3 listeners where TSIG authentication is required, or restrict network-level access to affected transport ports to trusted sources only.

Published: 2026-05-05 Last update: 2026-05-08 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-35579 is rated Exploit Available (53.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-35579

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-35579

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-06 0.05%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-35579

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.2 4.0 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:P)
Additional preconditions must be present for exploitation.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
[email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-35579

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-35579

GHSA-vp29-5652-4fw9 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — CoreDNS has TSIG authentication bypass on gRPC and QUIC transports

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-35579

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
coredns.io coredns < 1.14.3 cpe:2.3:a:coredns.io:coredns:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-35579

cvelogic Threat Intelligence