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BindApplication · Isc

CVE-2016-2088

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-03-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
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
resolver.c in named in ISC BIND 9.10.x before 9.10.3-P4, when DNS cookies are enabled, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (INSIST assertion failure and daemon exit) via a malformed packet with more than one cookie option.

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 denial of service vulnerability exists in ISC BIND 9.10.x before 9.10.3-P4 where a malformed DNS packet containing more than one cookie option triggers an INSIST assertion failure in resolver.c, causing the named daemon to exit. The vulnerability is only exploitable when DNS cookies are enabled.

MitigationUpgrade BIND 9.10.x to version 9.10.3-P4 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling DNS cookies as a workaround until the update can be applied.

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:= 9.10.0= 9.10.1= 9.10.2= 9.10.3

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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. Identify installed BIND version
    Run `named -v` or `named -V` to display the BIND version. Alternatively, query the DNS server with `dig -v` or check your system's package manager.
    Affected if The version is 9.10.0, 9.10.1, 9.10.2, or 9.10.3 (versions before 9.10.3-P4)
  2. Confirm DNS cookies are enabled
    Inspect your named.conf configuration file (and any files it includes) for the 'dns-cookies' directive. Also check for 'server' blocks that may contain cookie settings.
    Affected if DNS cookies are explicitly enabled in the configuration (the vulnerability only triggers when cookies are enabled)
  3. Verify named daemon is running
    Check if the named process is active using `ps aux | grep named` or `systemctl status named` depending on your init system.
    Affected if The named daemon is running and accessible to network traffic

You are affected if you are running BIND version 9.10.0 through 9.10.3 with DNS cookies enabled in your configuration.

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 BIND 9.10.x to version 9.10.3-P4 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling DNS cookies as a workaround until the update can be applied.

Fix this in Bind 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
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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-2016-2088 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