CVE-2018-16855

published 2018-12-03

CVE-2018-16855: An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor before version 4.1.8 where a remote attacker sending a DNS query can trigger an out-of-bounds memory read while…

Priority P3 54 high 7.5 CVSS 3.0

AV N AC L PR N UI N S U C N I N A H

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor before version 4.1.8 where a remote attacker sending a DNS query can trigger an out-of-bounds memory read while computing the hash of the query for a packet cache lookup, possibly leading to a crash.

Affected

2 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
debian	pdns-recursor	< pdns-recursor 4.1.8-1 (bookworm)	pdns-recursor 4.1.8-1 (bookworm)
powerdns	recursor	< 4.1.8	4.1.8

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

• → Target service is PowerDNS Recursor (pdns-recursor); monitor for unexpected crashes of the recursor process, which may indicate exploitation of the out-of-bounds read via a crafted DNS query against the packet cache hash computation. ↗
• → Refer to the official PowerDNS security advisory for technical details and any proof-of-concept indicators that can be used to build detection signatures. ↗

• · Only PowerDNS Recursor versions before 4.1.8 are vulnerable; versions 4.1.8 and later are not affected. Confirm the installed version before applying detection logic. ↗
• · The vulnerability is triggered remotely over DNS (network-accessible service); no authentication is required, making any exposed pdns-recursor instance a potential target. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v3.0 7.5 HIGH CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd v2.0 5.0 MEDIUM AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

osv 7.5 HIGH

vendor_debian 7.5 HIGH

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