CVE-2025-5994
Cache poisoning via the ECS-enabled Rebirthday Attack
Record summary
CVE-2025-5994 has a selected CVSS score of 8.7 (high).
Description
A multi-vendor cache poisoning vulnerability named 'Rebirthday Attack' has been discovered in caching resolvers that support EDNS Client Subnet (ECS). Unbound is also vulnerable when compiled with ECS support, i.e., '--enable-subnet', AND configured to send ECS information along with queries to upstream name servers, i.e., at least one of the 'send-client-subnet', 'client-subnet-zone' or 'client-subnet-always-forward' options is used. Resolvers supporting ECS need to segregate outgoing queries to accommodate for different outgoing ECS information. This re-opens up resolvers to a birthday paradox attack (Rebirthday Attack) that tries to match the DNS transaction ID in order to cache non-ECS poisonous replies.
Exploitation context
CISA SSVC decision
CISA Coordinator · SSVC 2.0.3 · Evaluated Jul 16, 2025 · Source: CVE List
Affected products and versions
1| Product | Source | Version range | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
UnboundBrowse NLnet Labs / UnboundDefault status: unaffected | CVE List | 1.6.2 to < 1.23.0 | affected |