CVE-2020-10995

7.5 HIGH 4% exploit odds Fix listed

What it is

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.

At a glance

Exploitability: Can be exploited over the network without logging in. High risk of service disruption.
Exploit odds: 4.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Fix: A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

2020-05-19 17:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2026-06-17 02:48 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
Exploit odds: 4.5% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Severity: 7.5 HIGH (CVSS).
Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published: 2020-05-19 17:15 UTC
Last modified: 2026-06-17 02:48 UTC
Exploit probability: 4.5% · EPSS, next 30 days
Weakness: CWE-400 · Uncontrolled resource consumption
Record status: Modified

Affected

Powerdns Recursor ≤ 4.3.0
Fedoraproject Fedora 31
Fedoraproject Fedora 32
Debian Linux 10.0
Opensuse Backports Sle 15.0
Opensuse Leap 15.1

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 7.5

Attack vector: Network
Complexity: Low
Privileges needed: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Raw vector

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

Is it in your code?

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Fix and advisories

References

NVD record · CVE.org record