An issue has been found in PowerDNS before 3.4.11 and 4.0.2, and PowerDNS recursor before 3.7.4 and 4.0.4, allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause an abnormal CPU usage load on the PowerDNS server by sending crafted DNS queries, which might result in a partial denial of service if the system becomes overloaded. This issue is based on the fact that the PowerDNS server parses all records present in a query regardless of whether they are needed or even legitimate. A specially crafted query containing a large number of records can be used to take advantage of that behaviour.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade pdns-recursorUpgrade pdns | Sep 11, 2018 | Sep 11, 2018 |
| Arch Linux | — | Upgrade to the latest version of Arch Linux | Jul 11, 2025 | Sep 11, 2018 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade pdnsUpgrade pdns-recursor | Jan 14, 2017 | Jan 13, 2017 |
| Freebsd | — | Upgrade powerdnsUpgrade powerdns-recursor | Jan 19, 2017 | Jan 18, 2017 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade pdns-backend-lua-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-recursor-debugsourceUpgrade pdns-backend-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-backend-postgresql-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-backend-ldap-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-backend-mysqlUpgrade pdnsUpgrade pdns-backend-mydns-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-backend-sqlite3Upgrade pdns-backend-mydnsUpgrade pdns-recursorUpgrade pdns-backend-ldapUpgrade pdns-backend-sqlite3-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-recursor-debuginfoUpgrade pdns-debugsourceUpgrade pdns-backend-luaUpgrade pdns-backend-postgresql | Jan 19, 2017 | Jan 13, 2017 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade pdns-recursor | Nov 19, 2024 | Sep 11, 2018 |
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