CVE-2026-26017 — coredns
HIGHCVE-2026-26017 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.7) CWE-367 vulnerability in github.com/coredns/coredns. A fix is available for github.com/coredns/coredns — see the affected versions and patch details below.
CoreDNS ACL Bypass
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-26017.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-26017 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/coredns/corednsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A logical vulnerability in CoreDNS allows DNS access controls to be bypassed due to the default execution order of plugins. Security plugins such as acl are evaluated before the rewrite plugin, resulting in a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) flaw.
Impact
In multi-tenant Kubernetes clusters, this flaw undermines DNS-based segmentation strategies.
Example scenario:
- ACL blocks access to *.admin.svc.cluster.local
- A rewrite rule maps public-name → admin.svc.cluster.local
- An unprivileged pod queries public-name
- ACL allows the request
- Rewrite exposes the internal admin service IP
This allows unauthorized service discovery and reconnaissance of restricted internal infrastructure.
Patches
Has the problem been patched? What versions should users upgrade to?
Workarounds
- Reorder the default plugin.cfg so that:
- rewrite and other normalization plugins run before acl, opa, and firewall
- Ensure all access control checks are applied after name normalization.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/coredns/coredns | all versions | 1.14.2go get github.com/coredns/coredns@v1.14.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/coredns/coredns, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/coredns/coredns to 1.14.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-26017 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-26017 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-26017. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13 | rhacm2/lighthouse-agent-rhel9:1782924920 | RHSA-2026:36873 |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14 | rhacm2/lighthouse-agent-rhel9:1780204232 | RHSA-2026:25127 |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15 | rhacm2/lighthouse-coredns-rhel9:1774086225 | RHSA-2026:8151 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-26017 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-26017 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.