NULL pointer dereference in PowerDNS Recursor - CVE-2017-15120
Published: June 21, 2025
Vulnerability identifier: #VU111731
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green
CVE-ID: CVE-2017-15120
CWE-ID: CWE-476
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: PowerDNS.COM B.V.
Affected software:
PowerDNS Recursor
PowerDNS Recursor
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.
The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference error when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. A remote attacker can pass specially crafted data to the application and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.
How to mitigate CVE-2017-15120
Install update from vendor's website.