Security Advisories (3)
CVE-2026-64193 (2026-07-20)

Net::DNS versions through 1.55 for Perl allow remote execution injection via EDNS EXTENDED ERROR. Net::DNS::RR::OPT::EXTENDED_ERROR::_decompose parses the EXTRA-TEXT field of an EDNS EXTENDED-ERROR option (RFC 8914) by tokenising the raw bytes and passing the result to Perl's eval. There is some escaping done for $ and @, but not for backticks. This can be exploited for command execution if $pkt->edns->option('EXTENDED-ERROR') is called in array context, for example with a payload of {0:`"<command>"`} in EXTRA-TEXT.

CVE-2026-64194 (2026-07-20)

Net::DNS versions through 1.55 for Perl allow Denial of Service via deep DNS compression pointer chains. Net::DNS::DomainName::decode follows RFC 1035 compression pointers by recursing into itself with no depth limit. It is possible to construct a name which saturates the call stack (at least with larger TCP responses), leading to a potential Denial of Service. The guard `$link < $offset` prevents forward and circular chains, but still allows arbitrarily long backward chains. The per-offset cache (`$cache`) is populated at the start of each call and short-circuits only re-traverses of the same offset - the initial descent through a fresh chain still recurses at full depth. A crafted packet can chain two-byte compression pointers so that each one points two bytes earlier than the previous, producing a chain length of `offset / 2`. For the 14-bit pointer field (max offset 16383) this gives up to ~8191 recursive frames. For a TCP DNS message the limit is the 16-bit length field (~32767 frames). Perl's default C stack handles only a few thousand frames; beyond that the process receives SIGSEGV or similar, which is a denial-of-service for any application parsing untrusted DNS data. The vulnerability is triggered by `Net::DNS::Packet->new(\$wire)` i.e. any point where the library decodes a DNS message from the network.

CVE-2026-81928 (2026-09-01)

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.

NAME

Net::DNS::RR::SOA - DNS SOA resource record

SYNOPSIS

use Net::DNS::RR;

DESCRIPTION

Class for DNS Start of Authority (SOA) resource records.

METHODS

mname

print "mname = ", $rr->mname, "\n";

Returns the domain name of the original or primary nameserver for this zone.

rname

print "rname = ", $rr->rname, "\n";

Returns a domain name that specifies the mailbox for the person responsible for this zone.

serial

print "serial = ", $rr->serial, "\n";
$new_serial = $rr->serial(value);

Unsigned 32 bit version number of the original copy of the zone. Zone transfers preserve this value.

RFC1982 defines a strict (irreflexive) partial ordering for zone serial numbers. The serial number will be incremented unless the replacement value argument satisfies the ordering constraint.

refresh

print "refresh = ", $rr->refresh, "\n";

Returns the zone's refresh interval.

retry

print "retry = ", $rr->retry, "\n";

Returns the zone's retry interval.

expire

print "expire = ", $rr->expire, "\n";

Returns the zone's expire interval.

minimum

print "minimum = ", $rr->minimum, "\n";

Returns the minimum (default) TTL for records in this zone.

Zone Serial Number Management

The internal logic of the serial() method offers support for several widely used zone serial numbering policies.

Strictly Sequential

$successor = $soa->serial( SEQUENTIAL );

The existing serial number is incremented modulo 2**32 because the value returned by the auxiliary SEQUENTIAL() function can never satisfy the serial number ordering constraint.

Date Encoded

$successor = $soa->serial( YYYYMMDDxx );

The 32 bit value returned by the auxiliary YYYYMMDDxx() function will be used if it satisfies the ordering constraint, otherwise the existing serial number will be incremented as above.

Serial number increments must be limited to 100 per day for the date information to remain useful.

Time Encoded

$successor = $soa->serial( time );

The 32 bit value returned by the perl CORE::time() function will be used if it satisfies the serial number ordering constraint, otherwise the existing value will be incremented as above.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Michael Fuhr.

Portions Copyright (c) 2002-2004 Chris Reinhardt.

Portions Copyright (c) 2011 Dick Franks.

All rights reserved. This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

perl(1), Net::DNS, Net::DNS::Resolver, Net::DNS::Packet, Net::DNS::Header, Net::DNS::Question, Net::DNS::RR, RFC 1035 Section 3.3.13, RFC1982