vulnerability
Arch Linux: Denial of service (CVE-2020-8619)
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | (AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P) | Jun 17, 2020 | Jul 11, 2025 | Nov 27, 2025 |
Severity
4
CVSS
(AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P)
Published
Jun 17, 2020
Added
Jul 11, 2025
Modified
Nov 27, 2025
Description
An issue has been found in Bind before 9.16.4, where an asterisk character in an empty non-terminal can cause an assertion failure in rbtdb.c.
The asterisk character ("*") is allowed in DNS zone files, where it is most commonly present as a wildcard at a terminal node of the Domain Name System graph. However, the RFCs do not require and BIND does not enforce that an asterisk character be present only at a terminal node. A problem can occur when an asterisk is present in an empty non-terminal location within the DNS graph. If such a node exists, after a series of queries, named can reach an inconsistent state that results in the failure of an assertion check in rbtdb.c, followed by the program exiting due to the assertion failure.
Unless a nameserver is providing authoritative service for one or more zones and at least one zone contains an empty non-terminal entry containing an asterisk ("*") character, this defect cannot be encountered. A would-be attacker who is allowed to change zone content could theoretically introduce such a record in order to exploit this condition to cause denial of service, though we consider the use of this vector unlikely because any such attack would require a significant privilege level and be easily traceable.
The asterisk character ("*") is allowed in DNS zone files, where it is most commonly present as a wildcard at a terminal node of the Domain Name System graph. However, the RFCs do not require and BIND does not enforce that an asterisk character be present only at a terminal node. A problem can occur when an asterisk is present in an empty non-terminal location within the DNS graph. If such a node exists, after a series of queries, named can reach an inconsistent state that results in the failure of an assertion check in rbtdb.c, followed by the program exiting due to the assertion failure.
Unless a nameserver is providing authoritative service for one or more zones and at least one zone contains an empty non-terminal entry containing an asterisk ("*") character, this defect cannot be encountered. A would-be attacker who is allowed to change zone content could theoretically introduce such a record in order to exploit this condition to cause denial of service, though we consider the use of this vector unlikely because any such attack would require a significant privilege level and be easily traceable.
Solution
arch-linux-upgrade-latest
References
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