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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2014-8601

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-12-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.6.1 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
High EPSS 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
PowerDNS Recursor before 3.6.2 does not limit delegation chaining, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service ("performance degradations") via a large or infinite number of referrals, as demonstrated by resolving domains hosted by ezdns.it.

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

PowerDNS Recursor before 3.6.2 lacks limits on DNS delegation chaining, allowing attackers to trigger performance DoS by providing domains with excessive referral chains (as demonstrated with ezdns.it domains). The recursor gets stuck following infinite or very long delegation paths, consuming CPU and memory.

MitigationUpgrade PowerDNS Recursor to version 3.6.2 or later, which introduces delegation chain limits. Configure the max-chain-length setting appropriately to bound recursion depth.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
RecursorApplication
Affected:<= 3.6.1

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. Check if PowerDNS Recursor is installed
    On Debian 7.0, run: dpkg -l | grep pdns-recursor
    Affected if If the package is not installed, the system is not affected by this CVE
  2. Determine the installed PowerDNS Recursor version
    Run: pdns_recursor --version or dpkg -s pdns-recursor
    Affected if If version is 3.6.1 or lower, the system is vulnerable to this CVE
  3. Verify if the PowerDNS Recursor service is running
    Run: service pdns-recursor status or ps aux | grep pdns_recursor
    Affected if If the service is running and the version is <= 3.6.1, the vulnerability is active and exploitable
  4. Check for delegation chain limits in configuration
    Examine /etc/powerdns/recursor.conf for any max-chain-length or chain-length settings
    Affected if If no such limit is configured and the version is <= 3.6.1, the recursor will follow unlimited delegation chains

A system is affected if PowerDNS Recursor version 3.6.1 or lower is installed and running, allowing attackers to cause CPU and memory exhaustion via domains with excessive referral chains.

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 a release after 3.6.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PowerDNS Recursor to version 3.6.2 or later, which introduces delegation chain limits. Configure the max-chain-length setting appropriately to bound recursion depth.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

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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-2014-8601 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