Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-35579

Auth Bypass in Coredns.Io Coredns ≤ 1.14.3

Public PoCAuth Bypass
Published
05 May 2026
Modified
24 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS: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
EPSS Score 0.0051 41th percentile
Risk Priority 44 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-35579 is a high-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability in Coredns.Io Coredns. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique External Remote Services (T1133); ranked at the 41th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) and IA-3 (Device Identification and Authentication) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

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…

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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.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1133 External Remote Services Persistence
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1040 Network Sniffing Credential Access
Adversaries may passively sniff network traffic to capture information about an environment, including authentication material passed over the network.
T1134 Access Token Manipulation Stealth
Adversaries may modify access tokens to operate under a different user or system security context to perform actions and bypass access controls.
T1185 Browser Session Hijacking Collection
Adversaries may take advantage of security vulnerabilities and inherent functionality in browser software to change content, modify user-behaviors, and intercept information as part of various browser session hijacking techniques.
T1505.003 Web Shell Persistence
Adversaries may backdoor web servers with web shells to establish persistent access to systems.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-33190Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2026-33489Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2023-28452Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2023-30464Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2026-26017Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2025-47950Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2026-62309Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2026-32934Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2026-62299Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns
CVE-2025-68151Same product: Coredns.Io Coredns

Affected Assets

coredns.io
coredns
≤ 1.14.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 8 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V6.4.4
  • V6.5.4
  • V6.5.5
  • V6.5.7

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Mandates unique identification and authentication of organizational users before access, directly stopping improper authentication.

Requires unique identification and authentication of devices before establishing connections, preventing unauthenticated device claims.

Mandates unique identification and authentication of non-organizational users, directly addressing the weakness for external actors.

Manages authenticators with verification and secure distribution, reducing opportunities for improper authentication.

Developer testing and evaluation at post-design stages directly uncovers incorrect implementations of required authentication algorithms.

Enforces access only after approved authorizations, which presupposes correct authentication has occurred.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-03 directly enforces authentication mechanisms that eliminate most improper-authentication defects, yet CWE-287 spans additional vectors (missing checks, flawed protocols, session handling) that one control does not fully close.

PR.AA-04 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-04 directly enables verification of identity assertions (mostly preventing CWE-287 in that scope) yet leaves many other authentication failure modes unaddressed (only partial prevention overall).

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require correct implementation of authentication algorithms.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies and governs credentials/tokens that authentication relies on, removing some weak-credential cases, yet leaves verification logic, missing checks, and protocol flaws untouched.

PR.AA-02 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-02 ensures valid enrollment and unique credential binding, which reduces some improper-auth risks at issuance time but leaves runtime claim verification untouched, so each direction only partially addresses the other.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

PR.PS-01 can enforce auth-related settings via hardened baselines and default reviews, blocking some config-based instances of CWE-287, yet leaves code-level auth flaws untouched so neither direction reaches mostly.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

prevents

Requiring authentication methods whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data and mandating multi-factor authentication directly blocks attempts to access resources without proving identity.

prevents

Verifying user identity before issuing replacement credentials and forcing changes after compromise reduces the likelihood that authentication bypass can be achieved through stolen or weak credentials.

finds

Security testing can detect flawed authentication implementations but does not prevent them by itself.

prevents

Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.

mitigates

Requiring authentication mechanisms and technical parameters for secure connections ensures that network services verify user identity before granting access, preventing exploitation of missing or weak authentication.

degrades

Cryptography control addresses proper use of authentication algorithms but is broader than authentication alone.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 7 (3 rules)
  • V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-287
  • V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
  • V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
  • V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 24.04 (2 rules)
  • V-270675 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS when booted must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
  • V-270714 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not allow accounts configured in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287

References