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bind9 — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616

A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.

Products
bind9
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
1:9.16.3-1
CVEs
CVE-2020-8616
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 14:10 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616

core-osv · Original source

Published 19 May 2020, 14:15 UTC

A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616

bind9

Fixed versions: 1:9.16.3-1

bind9

Fixed versions: 1:9.16.3-1

bind9

Fixed versions: 1:9.16.3-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "cd0a4ad2ddf741f533c29206936e9a5a6ba7275940f931b9a4109b63931ade2e",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616",
    "summary": "A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bind9",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1:9.16.3-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bind9",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1:9.16.3-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "bind9",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1:9.16.3-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1:9.16.3-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bind9",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bind9?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1:9.16.3-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bind9",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bind9?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1:9.16.3-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "bind9",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bind9?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8616.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:02:51.996944641Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-8616"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-8616"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-8616",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 453231,
  "published_at": "2020-05-19T14:15:11.877+00:00"
}