Vulnerability · Published May 19, 2020 · Assigned by isc

CVE-2020-8616BIND does not sufficiently limit the number of fetches performed when processing referrals

High 8.6

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in BIND9 from ISC. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 10.9% (higher than 96% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.6High
Exploit odds (30 days)10.9%top 4.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine:v3.20bind9.14.12-r0ALPINE-CVE-2020-8616
Alpine:v3.21bind9.14.12-r0ALPINE-CVE-2020-8616
Alpine:v3.22bind9.14.12-r0ALPINE-CVE-2020-8616
Alpine:v3.23bind9.14.12-r0ALPINE-CVE-2020-8616
Alpine:v3.24bind9.14.12-r0ALPINE-CVE-2020-8616
Debian:12bind91:9.16.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616
Debian:13bind91:9.16.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616
Debian:14bind91:9.16.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
ISC BIND9 9.0.0 -> 9.11.18, 9.12.0 -> 9.12.4-P2, 9.14.0 -> 9.14.11, 9.16.0 -> 9.16.2, and releases 9.17.0 -> 9.17.1 of the 9.17 experimental development branch. All releases in the obsolete 9.13 and 9.15 development branches. All releases of BIND Supported Preview Edition from 9.9.3-S1 -> 9.11.18-S1

References