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pdns-recursor — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0. It allows an attacker (with enough privileges to change the system's hostname) to cause disclosure of uninitialized memory content via a stack-based out-of-bounds read. It only occurs on systems where gethostname() does not have '\0' termination of the returned string if the hostname is larger than the supplied buffer. (Linux systems are not affected because the buffer is always large enough. OpenBSD systems are not affected because the returned hostname always has '\0' termination.) Under some conditions, this issue can lead to the writing of one '\0' byte out-of-bounds on the stack, causing a denial of service or possibly arbitrary code execution.

Products
pdns-recursor
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
4.3.1-1
CVEs
CVE-2020-10030
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 12:25 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030

core-osv · Original source

Published 19 May 2020, 16:15 UTC

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0. It allows an attacker (with enough privileges to change the system's hostname) to cause disclosure of uninitialized memory content via a stack-based out-of-bounds read. It only occurs on systems where gethostname() does not have '\0' termination of the returned string if the hostname is larger than the supplied buffer. (Linux systems are not affected because the buffer is always large enough. OpenBSD systems are not affected because the returned hostname always has '\0' termination.) Under some conditions, this issue can lead to the writing of one '\0' byte out-of-bounds on the stack, causing a denial of service or possibly arbitrary code execution.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030

pdns-recursor

Fixed versions: 4.3.1-1

pdns-recursor

Fixed versions: 4.3.1-1

pdns-recursor

Fixed versions: 4.3.1-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "fa50d7849aa8f6cca4eebd41acaf2d800ada1da3611d0866406474341bc8c22a",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030",
    "summary": "An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0. It allows an attacker (with enough privileges to change the system's hostname) to cause disclosure of uninitialized memory content via a stack-based out-of-bounds read. It only occurs on systems where gethostname() does not have '\\0' termination of the returned string if the hostname is larger than the supplied buffer. (Linux systems are not affected because the buffer is always large enough. OpenBSD systems are not affected because the returned hostname always has '\\0' termination.) Under some conditions, this issue can lead to the writing of one '\\0' byte out-of-bounds on the stack, causing a denial of service or possibly arbitrary code execution.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "pdns-recursor",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.3.1-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "pdns-recursor",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.3.1-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "pdns-recursor",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.3.1-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.3.1-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "pdns-recursor",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/pdns-recursor?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.3.1-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "pdns-recursor",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/pdns-recursor?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.3.1-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "pdns-recursor",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/pdns-recursor?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10030.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "unimportant"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:00:06.441792884Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-10030"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-10030"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-10030",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 450984,
  "published_at": "2020-05-19T16:15:10.917+00:00"
}