CoreDNS TSIG authentication bypass on encrypted DNS transports

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CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins. In versions prior to 1.14.3, the tsig plugin can be bypassed on non-plain-DNS transports (DoT, DoH, DoH3, DoQ, and gRPC) because it trusts the transport writer's TsigStatus() instead of performing verification itself. The DoH and DoH3 writer's TsigStatus() always returns nil, the DoT server does not set TsigSecret on the dns.Server, and the DoQ and gRPC writers also unconditionally return nil. This allows an unauthenticated remote client to bypass TSIG-based authentication and access resources intended to be restricted behind a tsig require all policy. Plain DNS over TCP and UDP are not affected. This issue has been fixed in version 1.14.3.

Source published

5 May 2026 19:02:55 UTC

Source modified

6 May 2026 12:47:07 UTC

Saved here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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CVE Program Terms of Use

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CVSS 4.0 · 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins. In versions prior to 1.14.3, the tsig plugin can be bypassed on non-plain-DNS transports (DoT, DoH, DoH3, DoQ, and gRPC) because it trusts the transport writer's TsigStatus() instead of performing verification itself. The DoH and DoH3 writer's TsigStatus() always returns nil, the DoT server does not set TsigSecret on the dns.Server, and the DoQ and gRPC writers also unconditionally return nil. This allows an unauthenticated remote client to bypass TSIG-based authentication and access resources intended to be restricted behind a tsig require all policy. Plain DNS over TCP and UDP are not affected. This issue has been fixed in version 1.14.3.

Source published

May 5, 2026, 7:02:55 PM (timezone not stated)

Source modified

May 6, 2026, 12:47:07 PM (timezone not stated)

Saved here

15 Nov 2026 09:37:50 UTC

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ENISA EUVD · source terms and attribution apply

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EUVD CVSS 4.0 · 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins. In versions prior to 1.14.3, the tsig plugin can be bypassed on non-plain-DNS transports (DoT, DoH, DoH3, DoQ, and gRPC) because it trusts the transport writer's TsigStatus() instead of performing verification itself. The DoH and DoH3 writer's TsigStatus() always returns nil, the DoT server does not set TsigSecret on the dns.Server, and the DoQ and gRPC writers also unconditionally return nil. This allows an unauthenticated remote client to bypass TSIG-based authentication and access resources intended to be restricted behind a tsig require all policy. Plain DNS over TCP and UDP are not affected. This issue has been fixed in version 1.14.3.

Source published

5 May 2026 20:16:36 UTC

Source modified

24 Jul 2026 23:10:00 UTC

Saved here

25 Oct 2026 08:17:18 UTC

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CVSS 4.0 · [email protected] · Secondary · 8.7 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/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

CVSS 3.1 · [email protected] · Primary · 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

### Summary CoreDNS' tsig plugin can be bypassed on non-plain-DNS transports because it trusts the transport writer's TsigStatus() instead of performing verification itself. In the attached PoC, plain DNS/TCP correctly rejects an invalid TSIG (NOTAUTH), while the same invalid-TSIG request is accepted over DoT (tls://) and DoH (https://), allowing a client without the shared secret to satisfy require all. The same bug class affects DoH3, DoQ, and gRPC. ### Details The tsig plugin decides whether an incoming TSIG was valid by consulting w.TsigStatus(): tsigStatus := w.TsigStatus(); if tsigStatus != nil { ... NOTAUTH ... } (plugin/tsig/tsig.go) Two affected transports are shown directly in the PoC: - DoH: DoHWriter.TsigStatus() always returns nil (core/dnsserver/https.go), and the HTTP server passes unpacked DNS messages directly into the plugin chain. - DoT: the TLS server builds a dns.Server without setting TsigSecret (core/dnsserver/server_tls.go), unlike plain DNS/TCP/UDP which sets TsigSecret: s.tsigSecret (core/dnsserver/server.go). The same transport-family bug pattern also appears on other transports: - DoH3 reuses the DoH writer path (core/dnsserver/server_https3.go -> core/dnsserver/https.go), so it inherits the same TsigStatus() == nil behavior. - DoQ uses DoQWriter.TsigStatus() error { return nil } (core/dnsserver/quic.go). - gRPC uses gRPCresponse.TsigStatus() error { return nil } (core/dnsserver/server_grpc.go). The attached PoC was kept deliberately small (baseline TCP+DoT+DoH only) for convenience. ### PoC 1. Adjust COREDNS_BIN in the PoC to point at right path (see the top-level const definitions for tunables as well) 2. Run python3 ./tsig-repro.py 3. Expected output: *** Start CoreDNS *** Corefile: /tmp/vh-f001-tsig-doh-dot-bypass/Corefile Log: /tmp/vh-f001-tsig-doh-dot-bypass/coredns.log *** Baseline (plain TCP) *** no_tsig rcode=5 (expected REFUSED=5) invalid_tsig rcode=9 (expected NOTAUTH=9) *** Candidate (DoT) *** no_tsig rcode=5 (expected REFUSED=5) invalid_tsig rcode=0 ancount=1 (expected NOERROR=0 and ancount>0) *** Candidate (DoH) *** no_tsig http=200 rcode=5 (expected REFUSED=5) invalid_tsig http=200 rcode=0 ancount=1 (expected NOERROR=0 and ancount>0) *** OK *** TSIG bypass reproduced: plain TCP rejects invalid TSIG, while DoT and DoH accept it. Results: /tmp/vh-f001-tsig-doh-dot-bypass/results.json ### Impact Unauthenticated remote clients can bypass TSIG-based authentication/authorization on first-class encrypted transports, enabling access to whatever the deployment intended to restrict behind tsig { require all } (e.g., zone data/privileged queries, etc.).

Source published

28 Apr 2026 22:46:15 UTC

Source modified

10 Sep 2026 03:51:02 UTC

Saved here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

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GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

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CVSS_V3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS_V4 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Publisher rating · HIGH

CoreDNS has TSIG authentication bypass on DoT, DoH, DoH3, DoQ, and gRPC in github.com/coredns/coredns

Source published

25 Jun 2026 22:34:34 UTC

Source modified

25 Jun 2026 23:01:32 UTC

Saved here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

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OSV · upstream source license applies

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