Answer in brief
CVE-2026-81928 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in Net::DNS versions before 1.57 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via unbounded recursion in sig_data when re-encoding a message with a misplaced TSIG record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Affected software not mapped in the current feed; confirm the named product and version against your inventory.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
Affected software not mapped in the current feed; confirm the named product and version against your inventory.
Published upstream
Sep 1, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 1, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 1, 2026
Net::DNS versions before 1.57 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via unbounded recursion in sig_data when re-encoding a message with a misplaced TSIG record. sig_data signs a message by re-encoding it, and removes TSIG records only from the additional section. A TSIG decoded into the answer or authority section survives that step and is signed again, so encoding re-enters sig_data with no termination condition. Decoding does not reject such a message: a TSIG that is not the last record on the wire raises "misplaced or corrupt TSIG", but the error is caught, reported as a warning, and the record is left in the packet. RFC 8945 section 5.2 requires the message to be dropped. The recursion is reached only when the decoded TSIG carries an empty MAC, since a MAC recovered from the wire short-circuits the signing step. It is reached only from code that re-encodes a message it decoded, such as a forwarder or a proxy. A decoded message that is never re-encoded is unaffected. Message direction does not matter: a query reaches the same path as a response. Each cycle re-encodes the whole message, so fewer than 100 bytes on the wire exhaust available memory and terminate the process.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.