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BindApplication · Isc

CVE-1999-0848

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-11-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Denial of service in BIND named via consuming more than "fdmax" file descriptors.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

BIND named versions prior to the fix allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service by making numerous DNS queries that consume file descriptors beyond the configured 'fdmax' limit, causing the DNS server to exhaust available file descriptors and fail.

MitigationIncrease the fdmax (file descriptor) limit in the BIND configuration or upgrade to a patched BIND version; also consider implementing query rate limiting to prevent rapid file descriptor consumption.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
BindApplication
Affected:= 8.2= 8.2.1
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
SunosOperating system
Affected:= 5.7

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if BIND named is running
    Run 'named -v' or 'named -V' to check the version, or check process list for 'named' daemon (ps -ef | grep named)
    Affected if BIND named process is found running on the system
  2. Determine BIND version
    Execute 'named -v' or check the named binary version (named -v shows version like BIND 8.2, BIND 8.2.1, etc.)
    Affected if Version is 8.2 or 8.2.1 specifically
  3. Check operating system version
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to identify the OS version
    Affected if Running SunOS 5.7 (SunOS/Solaris 7.0)
  4. Verify file descriptor configuration
    Check BIND configuration file (named.conf) for 'fdmax' setting or check system limits with 'ulimit -n'
    Affected if Low fdmax limit configured (vulnerable to exhaustion)

System is affected if running BIND version 8.2 or 8.2.1, or SunOS 5.7 with unpatched BIND, and the file descriptor limit can be exhausted by rapid DNS query volume.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Increase the fdmax (file descriptor) limit in the BIND configuration or upgrade to a patched BIND version; also consider implementing query rate limiting to prevent rapid file descriptor consumption.

Fix this in Bind Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0848 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data