CVE: CVE-2025-13878
Title: Malformed BRID/HHIT records can cause named to terminate unexpectedly
Document version: 2.0
Posting date: 21 January 2026
Program impacted: BIND 9
Versions affected:
BIND
- 9.18.40 -> 9.18.43
- 9.20.13 -> 9.20.17
- 9.21.12 -> 9.21.16
BIND Supported Preview Edition
- 9.18.40-S1 -> 9.18.43-S1
- 9.20.13-S1 -> 9.20.17-S1
Severity: High
Exploitable: Remotely
Description:
Malformed BRID/HHIT records can cause named to terminate unexpectedly.
Impact:
An attacker can cause named to crash by sending a request that results in a corrupt or malicious record.
-
Authoritative servers are affected by this vulnerability.
-
Resolvers are affected by this vulnerability.
CVSS Score: 7.5
CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
For more information on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and to obtain your specific environmental score please visit: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H&version=3.1.
Workarounds:
No workarounds known.
Active exploits:
We are not aware of any active exploits.
Solution:
Upgrade to the patched release most closely related to your current version of BIND 9:
- 9.18.44
- 9.20.18
- 9.21.17
BIND Supported Preview Edition is a special feature preview branch of BIND provided to eligible ISC support customers.
- 9.18.44-S1
- 9.20.18-S1
Acknowledgments:
ISC would like to thank Vlatko Kosturjak from Marlink Cyber for bringing this vulnerability to our attention.
Document revision history:
- 1.0 Early Notification, 14 January 2026
- 2.0 Public disclosure, 21 January 2026
Related documents:
See our BIND 9 Security Vulnerability Matrix for a complete listing of security vulnerabilities and versions affected.
Do you still have questions? Questions regarding this advisory should be mailed to bind-security@isc.org or posted as confidential GitLab issues at https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/issues/new?issue[confidential]=true.
Note:
ISC patches only currently supported versions. When possible we indicate EOL versions affected. For current information on which versions are actively supported, please see https://www.isc.org/download/.
ISC Security Vulnerability Disclosure Policy:
Details of our current security advisory policy and practice can be found in the ISC Software Defect and Security Vulnerability Disclosure Policy at https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-00861.
The Knowledgebase article https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2025-13878 is the complete and official security advisory document.
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