Vulnerability record · CVE-2016-7072 · published 10 September 2018
CVE-2016-7072: Powerdns authoritative improper input validation vulnerability
Powerdns · Authoritative
An issue has been found in PowerDNS Authoritative Server before 3.4.11 and 4.0.2 allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service by opening a large number of TCP connections to the web server. If the web server runs out of file descriptors, it triggers an exception and terminates the whole PowerDNS process. While it's more complicated for an unauthorized attacker to make the web server run out of file descriptors since its connection will be closed just after being accepted, it might still be possible.
Description
An issue has been found in PowerDNS Authoritative Server before 3.4.11 and 4.0.2 allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service by opening a large number of TCP connections to the web server. If the web server runs out of file descriptors, it triggers an exception and terminates the whole PowerDNS process. While it's more complicated for an unauthorized attacker to make the web server run out of file descriptors since its connection will be closed just after being accepted, it might still be possible.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Affected products
2 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.
References
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-7072 | Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory |
| https://doc.powerdns.com/md/security/powerdns-advisory-2016-03/ | Vendor Advisory |
| https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3764 | Third Party Advisory |
| https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-7072 | Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory |
| https://doc.powerdns.com/md/security/powerdns-advisory-2016-03/ | Vendor Advisory |
| https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3764 | Third Party Advisory |
Track CVE-2016-7072 inside VULONE
Watch it alongside the ransomware crews, C2 infrastructure and forum chatter that reference it, query it through the API and pull it into your SIEM over TAXII.
Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2016-7072), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.