CVE-2020-8616
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…
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EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 10.9%, higher than 96% of all known CVEs. Patch or mitigate before the next change window.
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.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.6 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
- EPSS
- 10.88% probability · 96th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-400
- Affected
- isc/bind · debian/debian linux
- Source
- security-officer@isc.org
EPSS 10.9% since 3 November 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
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00041.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00044.html
- http://www.nxnsattack.comExploit, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/05/19/4Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2020-8616Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00031.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JKJXVBOKZ36ER3EUCR7VRB7WGHIIMPNJ/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WOGCJS2XQ3SQNF4W6GLZ73LWZJ6ZZWZI/
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200522-0002/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4365-1/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4365-2/
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4689Third Party Advisory
- https://www.synology.com/security/advisory/Synology_SA_20_12
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00041.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00044.html
- http://www.nxnsattack.comExploit, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/05/19/4Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2020-8616Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00031.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JKJXVBOKZ36ER3EUCR7VRB7WGHIIMPNJ/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WOGCJS2XQ3SQNF4W6GLZ73LWZJ6ZZWZI/
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200522-0002/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4365-1/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4365-2/
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4689Third Party Advisory
- https://www.synology.com/security/advisory/Synology_SA_20_12
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.