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Name Server DaemonApplication · FreeBSD

CVE-2012-2979

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.2.13 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
FreeBSD NSD before 3.2.13 allows remote attackers to crash a NSD child server process (SIGSEGV) and cause a denial of service in the NSD server.

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

NSD (Name Server Daemon) versions prior to 3.2.13 on FreeBSD contain a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to send specially crafted requests causing a child server process to crash with a SIGSEGV fault, resulting in denial of service. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable and affects the NSD server's ability to handle DNS queries.

MitigationUpgrade NSD to version 3.2.13 or later on affected FreeBSD systems to resolve the vulnerability.

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
Name Server DaemonApplication
Affected:< 3.2.13

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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. Verify NSD is installed
    Run 'pkg info nsd' or check for NSD binary at /usr/local/sbin/nsd
    Affected if NSD package is not found or not installed on the system
  2. Check NSD version
    Run 'nsd -v' or 'pkg info nsd' to display the installed version number
    Affected if The version displayed is less than 3.2.13 (for example, 3.2.12 or earlier)
  3. Confirm FreeBSD OS
    Run 'uname -a' to verify the operating system is FreeBSD
    Affected if The system is not running FreeBSD (this CVE only affects FreeBSD systems)
  4. Verify NSD is running as a DNS server
    Run 'ps aux | grep nsd' to check if NSD process is active, or check if DNS port 53 is listening with 'netstat -an | grep :53'
    Affected if NSD is actively running and handling DNS queries

The environment is affected if NSD version is less than 3.2.13 on a FreeBSD system and NSD is running as an active DNS server.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.2.13 or later
Fixed in 3.2.13
Interim mitigation

Upgrade NSD to version 3.2.13 or later on affected FreeBSD systems to resolve the vulnerability.

Fix this in Name Server Daemon Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2012-2979 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