Command injection in PowerDNS Authoritative - CVE-2026-42000
Published: May 20, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU131982
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 8.2 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-42000
CWE-ID: CWE-77
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to modify backend configuration.
The vulnerability exists due to command injection in Bind backend AXFR name handling when processing an AXFR of a zone with specific contents. A remote attacker can provide a zone transfer containing names with special characters to modify backend configuration.
This issue affects AXFR operations involving the Bind backend and can cause the written configuration to become non-parsable until manual correction is performed.
Affected software
PowerDNS Authoritative
Debian Linux
Fedora
pdns (Debian package)
pdns
Debian Linux
Fedora
pdns (Debian package)
pdns
How to mitigate CVE-2026-42000
Install security update from vendor's website.
PowerDNS Authoritative - addressed in versions 4.9.15, 5.0.5
pdns (Debian package) - update to 4.9.15-0+deb13u1
pdns - addressed in versions 5.0.5-1.el9, 5.0.5-1.el10_2, 5.0.5-1.el10_3, 5.0.5-1.fc43, 5.0.5-1.fc44
pdns (Debian package) - update to 4.9.15-0+deb13u1
pdns - addressed in versions 5.0.5-1.el9, 5.0.5-1.el10_2, 5.0.5-1.el10_3, 5.0.5-1.fc43, 5.0.5-1.fc44