CVE-2018-5742

Description

From CVE.org

While backporting a feature for a newer branch of BIND9, RedHat introduced a path leading to an assertion failure in buffer.c:420. Affects RedHat versions bind-9.9.4-65.el7 -> bind-9.9.4-72.el7. No ISC releases are affected. Other packages from other distributions who made the same error may also be affected.

Statement

This flaw appears to be exploitable only when debug logging is enabled and set to at least a level of 10. As this configuration should be rare in production instances of bind, it is unlikely that most servers will be exploitable. The debug level of the bind server can be checked via the rndc status command, which will return the current trace level as "debug level". A value of 10 or above would most likely make this flaw exploitable.

Mitigation

Ensure that debug logging is disabled and set to 0. This can be verified on the Bind server by the rndc status command.

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 Score5.97.5N/A
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkN/A
Attack ComplexityHighLowN/A
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactHighHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

If an attacker can trigger the allocation of the limited resources, but the number or size of the resources is not controlled, then the most common result is denial of service. This would prevent valid users from accessing the product, and it could potentially have an impact on the surrounding environment, i.e., the product may slow down, crash due to unhandled errors, or lock out legitimate users. For example, a memory exhaustion attack against an application could slow down the application as well as its host operating system.

Access Control,Other

Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other

In some cases it may be possible to force the product to "fail open" in the event of resource exhaustion. The state of the product -- and possibly the security functionality - may then be compromised.

Frequently Asked Questions

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