CVE-2017-15120
NULL Pointer Dereference
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Description
An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when parsing a specially crafted answer containing a CNAME of a different class than IN. An unauthenticated remote attacker could cause a denial of service.
Official description from the CVE record, published by redhat. Copyright © 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. See /security/cve/legal for the CVE license. View the record on cve.org
Key data
CVSS 3.0 High 7.5
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector: Network
The vulnerable component can be reached over a network, possibly from the Internet.
Attack complexity: Low
No special conditions are needed. The attack can be repeated at will.
Privileges required: None
No account or privileges are needed.
User interaction: None
No action from any user is needed.
Scope: Unchanged
The impact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality impact: None
No effect on the secrecy of data.
Integrity impact: None
No effect on the trustworthiness of data.
Availability impact: High
Serious or total effect on availability.
| Metric | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Attack vector | Network | The vulnerable component can be reached over a network, possibly from the Internet. |
| Attack complexity | Low | No special conditions are needed. The attack can be repeated at will. |
| Privileges required | None | No account or privileges are needed. |
| User interaction | None | No action from any user is needed. |
| Scope | Unchanged | The impact stays within the vulnerable component. |
| Confidentiality impact | None | No effect on the secrecy of data. |
| Integrity impact | None | No effect on the trustworthiness of data. |
| Availability impact | High | Serious or total effect on availability. |
CVSS is owned and managed by FIRST.Org, Inc. (FIRST) and is used by permission. Each CVSS score on this site is shown together with its vector string, as published in the CVE record by the source named next to it. Learn more at first.org/cvss.
EPSS
- Score
- 0.51353 (51.4% probability)
- Percentile
- 98.9%
- Scores of
- Nov 10, 2026
- Model
- v2026.06.15
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference
Affected products
PowerDNS pdns-recursor
- affected: 4.0.8
References
- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-15120
- doc.powerdns.com/recursor/security-advisories/powerdns-advi…
- DSA-4063 (debian.org)vendor-advisory
- [oss-security] 20171211 PowerDNS Security Advisory 2017-08 (seclists.org)mailing-list
- 106335 (securityfocus.com)vdb-entry
Timeline
- ID reserved
- Record published
- Record last updated
Look up another CVE
About CubePath
Data from the CVE Program (MITRE), CISA KEV and FIRST EPSS. CVSS is owned by FIRST and used by permission. Not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE, CISA or FIRST. Data as of Nov 10, 2026, 19:48 UTC. Sources and licenses