What is CVE-2026-5172?

CVE-2026-5172 is a high-severity vulnerability in Dnsmasq, classified under CWE-787: OUT-OF-BOUNDS WRITE. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2026-05-11.

How severe is CVE-2026-5172?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2026-5172 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Dnsmasq

CVE-2026-5172

A buffer overflow in dnsmasq’s extract_addresses() function allows an attacker to trigger a heap out-of-bounds read and crash by exploiting a malformed DNS response, enabling extract_name() to advance the pointer past the record’s end.

EPSS: 0.000 (7.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.3 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.

Affected products

Dnsmasq — versions 0, 2.93, 2.92rel2

Public proof-of-concept exploits

lottiedeyan/CVE20265172poc

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-5172?: CVE-2026-5172 is a high-severity vulnerability in Dnsmasq, classified under CWE-787: OUT-OF-BOUNDS WRITE. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2026-05-11.
How severe is CVE-2026-5172?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2026-5172 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.