The nscd service in the GNU C Library 2.3.4 onwards may crash due to a
stack overflow when a malicious DNS server returns too large a response
for a DNS query, resulting in degraded DNS resolution for the system.



Exploitation of this bug needs a system that has nscd enabled and using
an untrusted DNS server for name resolution, with the compromised DNS
server being capable of processing records large enough to result in a
stack overflow in an nscd thread stack.  During experimentation, bind 9
was unable to handle large records, but that could change in future or
with a different name server.  In typical installations, nscd is
executed in an isolated context as its own user without a shell, due to
which any compromise of that service is isolated.



There is a remote possibility of nscd cache corruption if an attacker
manages to get the stack pointer into a desired point in the heap,
potentially resulting in other caches in nscd being overwritten with
corrupt data through the stack overflow, until the buggy code path
eventually results in a crash.



Finally, a crash in nscd may result in performance degradation when
resolving names, but it does not result in a denial of service.

Project Subscriptions

No data.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The nscd service in the GNU C Library 2.3.4 onwards may crash due to a stack overflow when a malicious DNS server returns too large a response for a DNS query, resulting in degraded DNS resolution for the system. Exploitation of this bug needs a system that has nscd enabled and using an untrusted DNS server for name resolution, with the compromised DNS server being capable of processing records large enough to result in a stack overflow in an nscd thread stack.  During experimentation, bind 9 was unable to handle large records, but that could change in future or with a different name server.  In typical installations, nscd is executed in an isolated context as its own user without a shell, due to which any compromise of that service is isolated. There is a remote possibility of nscd cache corruption if an attacker manages to get the stack pointer into a desired point in the heap, potentially resulting in other caches in nscd being overwritten with corrupt data through the stack overflow, until the buggy code path eventually results in a crash. Finally, a crash in nscd may result in performance degradation when resolving names, but it does not result in a denial of service.
Title Stack overflow in nscd due to unbounded alloca use
Weaknesses CWE-789
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 4.2, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L'}


Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: glibc

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-11T01:23:01.162Z

Reserved: 2026-09-10T20:18:09.584Z

Link: CVE-2026-89092

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-11T02:18:35.460

Modified: 2026-09-11T02:18:35.460

Link: CVE-2026-89092

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses