CVE-2016-7068
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…
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (7.29%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
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.
- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 7.29% probability · 94th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-20, CWE-400
- Affected
- powerdns/authoritative · powerdns/recursor · debian/debian linux
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 7.3% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-7068Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://doc.powerdns.com/md/security/powerdns-advisory-2016-02/Vendor Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3763Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3764Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-7068Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://doc.powerdns.com/md/security/powerdns-advisory-2016-02/Vendor Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3763Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3764Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.