CVE-2017-15120
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8...
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
CVE-2017-15120- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-476
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2017-6581
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
EUVD-2017-6581- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-rxpc-3cmh-w743
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8...
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
GHSA-rxpc-3cmh-w743- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-476
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
CVE-2017-15120- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-476
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
CVE-2017-15120- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2017-15120
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2017-15120- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-15120
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-15120- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
pdns-recursorDebian:12 |
before 4.1.0-1 | 4.1.0-1 |
pdns-recursorDebian:13 |
before 4.1.0-1 | 4.1.0-1 |
pdns-recursorDebian:14 |
before 4.1.0-1 | 4.1.0-1 |
pdns-recursorDebian:9 |
before 4.0.4-1+deb9u3, plus listed versions 4.0.4-14.0.4-1+deb9u14.0.4-1+deb9u24.0.4-1+deb9u3~bpo8+1 |
4.0.4-1+deb9u3 |
pdns-recursorUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 3.7.3-14.0.0~alpha1-14.0.0~alpha1-24.0.0~alpha2-24.0.0~alpha2-2ubuntu0.14.0.0~alpha2-2ubuntu0.1+esm1 |
None known |
Public exploits
Links only. Every CVE stores no exploit code.
| Source | Link | Date |
|---|---|---|
| PoC in GitHub | shutingrz/CVE-2017-15120_PoC | 2018-10-16 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases, products | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV, PoC in GitHub |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2017-15120 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Powerdns Recursor, published December 11, 2017. Public exploit code exists. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 51.4%, the 98th percentile. Fixed in pdns-recursor 4.1.0-1.