Security Advisories (2)
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.

NAME

Net::DNS::Header - DNS packet header

SYNOPSIS

use Net::DNS;

$packet = Net::DNS::Packet->new();
$header = $packet->header;

DESCRIPTION

Net::DNS::Header represents the header portion of a DNS packet.

METHODS

$packet->header

$packet = Net::DNS::Packet->new();
$header = $packet->header;

Net::DNS::Header objects emanate from the Net::DNS::Packet header() method, and contain an opaque reference to the parent Packet object.

Header objects may be assigned to suitably scoped lexical variables. They should never be stored in global variables or persistent data structures.

string

print $packet->header->string;

Returns a string representation of the packet header.

print

$packet->header->print;

Prints the string representation of the packet header.

id

print "query id = ", $packet->header->id, "\n";
$packet->header->id(1234);

Gets or sets the query identification number.

A random value is assigned if the argument value is undefined.

opcode

print "query opcode = ", $packet->header->opcode, "\n";
$packet->header->opcode("UPDATE");

Gets or sets the query opcode (the purpose of the query).

rcode

print "query response code = ", $packet->header->rcode, "\n";
$packet->header->rcode("SERVFAIL");

Gets or sets the query response code (the status of the query).

qr

print "query response flag = ", $packet->header->qr, "\n";
$packet->header->qr(0);

Gets or sets the query response flag.

aa

print "response is ", $packet->header->aa ? "" : "non-", "authoritative\n";
$packet->header->aa(0);

Gets or sets the authoritative answer flag.

tc

print "packet is ", $packet->header->tc ? "" : "not ", "truncated\n";
$packet->header->tc(0);

Gets or sets the truncated packet flag.

rd

print "recursion was ", $packet->header->rd ? "" : "not ", "desired\n";
$packet->header->rd(0);

Gets or sets the recursion desired flag.

ra

print "recursion is ", $packet->header->ra ? "" : "not ", "available\n";
$packet->header->ra(0);

Gets or sets the recursion available flag.

z

Unassigned bit, should always be zero.

print "The response has ", $packet->header->ad ? "" : "not", "been verified\n";

Relevant in DNSSEC context.

(The AD bit is only set on a response where signatures have been cryptographically verified or the server is authoritative for the data and is allowed to set the bit by policy.)

cd

print "checking was ", $packet->header->cd ? "not" : "", "desired\n";
$packet->header->cd(0);

Gets or sets the checking disabled flag.

qdcount, zocount

print "# of question records: ", $packet->header->qdcount, "\n";

Returns the number of records in the question section of the packet. In dynamic update packets, this field is known as zocount and refers to the number of RRs in the zone section.

ancount, prcount

print "# of answer records: ", $packet->header->ancount, "\n";

Returns the number of records in the answer section of the packet which may, in the case of corrupt packets, differ from the actual number of records. In dynamic update packets, this field is known as prcount and refers to the number of RRs in the prerequisite section.

nscount, upcount

print "# of authority records: ", $packet->header->nscount, "\n";

Returns the number of records in the authority section of the packet which may, in the case of corrupt packets, differ from the actual number of records. In dynamic update packets, this field is known as upcount and refers to the number of RRs in the update section.

arcount, adcount

print "# of additional records: ", $packet->header->arcount, "\n";

Returns the number of records in the additional section of the packet which may, in the case of corrupt packets, differ from the actual number of records. In dynamic update packets, this field is known as adcount.

EDNS Protocol Extensions

do

print "DNSSEC_OK flag was ", $packet->header->do ? "not" : "", "set\n";
$packet->header->do(1);

Gets or sets the EDNS DNSSEC OK flag.

Extended rcode

EDNS extended rcodes are handled transparently by $packet->header->rcode().

UDP packet size

$udp_max = $packet->edns->UDPsize;

EDNS offers a mechanism to advertise the maximum UDP packet size which can be assembled by the local network stack.

edns

$header  = $packet->header;
$version = $header->edns->version;
@options = $header->edns->options;
$option  = $header->edns->option(n);
$udp_max = $packet->edns->UDPsize;

Auxiliary function which provides access to the EDNS protocol extension OPT RR.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c)1997 Michael Fuhr.

Portions Copyright (c)2002,2003 Chris Reinhardt.

Portions Copyright (c)2012,2022 Dick Franks.

All rights reserved.

LICENSE

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the original copyright notices appear in all copies and that both copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of the author not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

SEE ALSO

perl Net::DNS Net::DNS::Packet Net::DNS::RR::OPT RFC1035(4.1.1)