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BindApplication · Isc

CVE-2013-2266

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-03-28
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
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
libdns in ISC BIND 9.7.x and 9.8.x before 9.8.4-P2, 9.8.5 before 9.8.5b2, 9.9.x before 9.9.2-P2, and 9.9.3 before 9.9.3b2 on UNIX platforms allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a memory-exhaustion attack against a machine running a named process.

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

A memory exhaustion vulnerability exists in libdns of ISC BIND 9 versions 9.7.x through 9.9.3 on UNIX platforms. Remote attackers can send crafted DNS queries containing malicious regular expressions that cause excessive memory consumption, leading to denial of service of the named process.

MitigationUpgrade to BIND 9.8.4-P2/9.8.5b2/9.9.2-P2/9.9.3b2 or later. As interim mitigation, implement query rate-limiting and restrict authoritative query sources via ACLs to reduce attack surface.

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:= 9.9.0= 9.9.1= 9.9.2= 9.9.3= 9.7.0= 9.7.1= 9.7.2= 9.7.3= 9.7.4= 9.7.5= 9.7.6= 9.8.0

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
Complete

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

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. Check if BIND named is installed
    Run 'which named' or check package manager (rpm -qa | grep bind, dpkg -l | grep bind)
    Affected if named binary or bind packages are present on the system
  2. Determine installed BIND version
    Run 'named -v' or 'named -V' to display version information
    Affected if Version output shows 9.7.0 through 9.9.3 inclusive (including 9.7.x, 9.8.0, 9.9.0-9.9.3)
  3. Verify named process is running
    Run 'ps aux | grep named' or 'pgrep named'
    Affected if named process is actively running on the server
  4. Confirm UNIX platform
    Run 'uname' or check OS type
    Affected if Operating system is a UNIX variant (Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.) as the vulnerability only affects UNIX platforms

A user is affected if BIND 9 version 9.7.0 through 9.9.3 is installed and running on a UNIX platform, exposing the libdns service to remote DNS queries.

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

Upgrade to BIND 9.8.4-P2/9.8.5b2/9.9.2-P2/9.9.3b2 or later. As interim mitigation, implement query rate-limiting and restrict authoritative query sources via ACLs to reduce attack surface.

Fix this in Bind Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2013-2266 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
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