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pdns-recursor — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995

PowerDNS Recursor from 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0 does not sufficiently defend against amplification attacks. An issue in the DNS protocol has been found that allow malicious parties to use recursive DNS services to attack third party authoritative name servers. The attack uses a crafted reply by an authoritative name server to amplify the resulting traffic between the recursive and other authoritative name servers. Both types of service can suffer degraded performance as an effect. This is triggered by random subdomains in the NSDNAME in NS records. PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.16, 4.2.2 and 4.3.1 contain a mitigation to limit the impact of this DNS protocol issue.

Products
pdns-recursor
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
4.3.1-1
CVEs
CVE-2020-10995
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 12:55 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995

core-osv · Original source

Published 19 May 2020, 17:15 UTC

PowerDNS Recursor from 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0 does not sufficiently defend against amplification attacks. An issue in the DNS protocol has been found that allow malicious parties to use recursive DNS services to attack third party authoritative name servers. The attack uses a crafted reply by an authoritative name server to amplify the resulting traffic between the recursive and other authoritative name servers. Both types of service can suffer degraded performance as an effect. This is triggered by random subdomains in the NSDNAME in NS records. PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.16, 4.2.2 and 4.3.1 contain a mitigation to limit the impact of this DNS protocol issue.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995

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": "c075cbcef35421fb6c6afaf3db2f474bcbaba4321ff9e1f7796c8e466967df3e",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995",
    "summary": "PowerDNS Recursor from 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0 does not sufficiently defend against amplification attacks. An issue in the DNS protocol has been found that allow malicious parties to use recursive DNS services to attack third party authoritative name servers. The attack uses a crafted reply by an authoritative name server to amplify the resulting traffic between the recursive and other authoritative name servers. Both types of service can suffer degraded performance as an effect. This is triggered by random subdomains in the NSDNAME in NS records. PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.16, 4.2.2 and 4.3.1 contain a mitigation to limit the impact of this DNS protocol issue.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995",
    "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-2020-10995",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10995"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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-2020-10995.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "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-2020-10995.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "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-2020-10995.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:01:16.704388610Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-10995"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-10995"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-10995",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 451537,
  "published_at": "2020-05-19T17:15:10.163+00:00"
}