Is this vulnerability remotely exploitable over the internet?

It can be, but only if the Pi-hole admin or API interface is exposed and reachable by an attacker who can authenticate or abuse exposed credentials. In many home deployments Pi-hole is restricted to local networks, but in corporate or misconfigured environments it may be reachable from broader networks.

What level of access does an attacker need to exploit this issue?

The attacker needs authenticated access with the ability to modify dns.hostRecord entries, either via the web interface or through the FTL API. Exploitation is not possible through ordinary unauthenticated DNS queries alone.

What is the safest general fix pattern?

The safest pattern is to strictly sanitize and normalize configuration fields so they cannot contain newline characters or other control sequences, and to generate configuration using structured, parameterized templates rather than embedding raw user input. Any value that becomes part of a lower-level configuration file should be validated against a tight whitelist of allowed characters and formats.

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(8.8)

Command Injection via Crafted dnsmasq Directives (CWE-78) in Pi-hole FTL dns.hostRecord

CVE-2026-35519

Published:

Apr 7, 2026

Status:

Analyzed

Summary

Affected Context

Exploit Preconditions

Why This Happens

Potential Impact

General Mitigation Guidance

How Teams Detect Issues Like This

Frequently Asked Questions

Source

NDV

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Vulnerability Type

Category:

Command Injection

CWE:

CWE-78;CWE-93

Impact:

Remote Code Execution on the Pi-hole host system

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(8.8)

CVSS Version:

3.1

Vulnerability Type

Category:

Command Injection

CWE:

CWE-78;CWE-93

Impact:

Remote Code Execution on the Pi-hole host system

Severity:

HIGH RISK

(8.8)

CVSS Version:

3.1

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Command Injection via Crafted dnsmasq Directives (CWE-78) in Pi-hole FTL dns.hostRecord

Summary

Affected Context

Exploit Preconditions

Why This Happens

Potential Impact

General Mitigation Guidance

How Teams Detect Issues Like This

Frequently Asked Questions

Source

Recent Vulnerabilities

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(8.8)

PHP Code Injection via File Upload (CWE-94) in Aero CMS Admin Post Creation

HIGH RISK

HIGH

(8.8)

Code Injection (CWE-94) via Module Parameters in Evolution CMS

Vulnerability Type

Vulnerability Type

Vulnerability Type

Catch This CVE While Code Is Being Written

Ship clean & secure code faster

Ship clean & secure code faster

Ship clean & secure code faster

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