CVE-2020-8617

Description

An assertion failure was found in BIND, which checks the validity of messages containing TSIG resource records. This flaw allows an attacker that knows or successfully guesses the name of the TSIG key used by the server to use a specially-crafted message, potentially causing a BIND server to reach an inconsistent state or cause a denial of service. A majority of BIND servers have an internally-generated TSIG session key whose name is trivially guessable, and that key exposes the vulnerability unless specifically disabled.

Statement

Upstream has released additional information about this flaw. Details available at: https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2020-8617-faq-and-supplemental-information

Mitigation

BIND servers have an internally-generated TSIG session key whose name is trivially guessable, and that key exposes the vulnerability unless specifically disabled. Upstream recommends using random value in session-keyname as a workaround. This can be added to named.conf configuration file.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score7.55.9N/A
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkN/A
Attack ComplexityLowHighN/A
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactHighHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

An attacker that can trigger an assert statement can still lead to a denial of service if the relevant code can be triggered by an attacker, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session.

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank ISC for reporting this issue. Upstream acknowledges Tobias Klein as the original reporter.

Frequently Asked Questions

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