Vulnerability · Published Jul 16, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-62994CoreDNS `k8s_external` headless AXFR can emit an empty transfer batch that panics the `transfer` plugin

Low 3.7

In plain English

A low-severity security flaw in coredns from coredns. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 40% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)3.7Low

Exploit odds (30 days)0.5%top 60.0% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

CoreDNS is a DNS server written in Go. From 1.9.4 until 1.14.5, a network DNS client allowed to request AXFR for a CoreDNS zone can trigger a panic when CoreDNS is configured with k8s_external headless-service zone transfers and Kubernetes contains a headless service endpoint with no declared ports; plugin/kubernetes/object/endpoint.go creates Port: -1, plugin/k8s_external/msg_to_dns.go skips that service, plugin/k8s_external/transfer.go sends an empty []dns.RR batch, and plugin/transfer/transfer.go indexes records[0] without checking the batch is non-empty. This issue is fixed in version 1.14.5.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Go	github.com/coredns/coredns	1.14.5	GHSA-74w3-63xv-x9mv
Go	github.com/coredns/coredns	1.14.5	GO-2026-6805

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
coredns	coredns	>= 1.9.4, < 1.14.5

Weakness: CWE-248, CWE-755 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

References

https://github.com/coredns/coredns/security/advisories/GHSA-74w3-63xv-x9mv x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/pull/8207 x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/commit/ab318db7b4a3a19273852ed627f54888198c8efb x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/coredns/coredns/releases/tag/v1.14.5 x_refsource_MISC