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FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2017-9103

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.5.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
An issue was discovered in adns before 1.5.2. pap_mailbox822 does not properly check st from adns__findlabel_next. Without this, an uninitialised stack value can be used as the first label length. Depending on the circumstances, an attacker might be able to trick adns into crashing the calling program, leaking aspects of the contents of some of its memory, causing it to allocate lots of memory, or perhaps overrunning a buffer. This is only possible with applications which make non-raw queries for SOA or RP records.

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

In adns before 1.5.2, the pap_mailbox822 function fails to properly validate the return value from adns__findlabel_next. This causes an uninitialized stack value to be used as the first label length when parsing mailbox addresses in SOA or RP DNS records, potentially leading to memory corruption, information disclosure, or denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade to adns 1.5.2 or later. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, audit and restrict applications making non-raw SOA or RP queries until the patch 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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 31= 32
AdnsApplication
Affected:< 1.5.2
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.1

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 adns version
    Run 'rpm -q adns' on Fedora/OpenSUSE, or 'adns-version' or check library version with 'ldd' on binaries using adns, or look for /usr/lib/libadns* files and check package version
    Affected if Installed version is less than 1.5.2 (e.g., 1.5.0, 1.4, etc.)
  2. Confirm adns library presence
    Check for presence of libadns shared library: 'find /usr -name "libadns*" 2>/dev/null' or check package manager: 'dpkg -l | grep adns' or 'rpm -qa | grep -i adns'
    Affected if adns library is installed and version cannot be determined or is below 1.5.2
  3. Identify applications using adns for DNS queries
    Scan running processes or application dependencies: 'ldd /path/to/application | grep adns' or review application documentation/config for DNS resolver library usage
    Affected if Applications linked against adns library are in use
  4. Audit for SOA or RP record queries
    Review application code, configuration, or logs for DNS queries requesting SOA (Start of Authority) or RP (Responsible Person) record types, or monitor network traffic for these query types
    Affected if Applications or scripts are making non-raw SOA or RP DNS record queries using the adns library

Environment is affected if adns version below 1.5.2 is installed AND applications or services use adns to query SOA or RP DNS records.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.5.2 or later
Fixed in 1.5.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to adns 1.5.2 or later. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, audit and restrict applications making non-raw SOA or RP queries until the patch can be applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

adns 1.5.2

  1. 1. Identify the package manager used on your system (dnf/yum for Fedora, zypper for openSUSE Leap)
  2. 2. Update your package repository metadata: 'sudo dnf check-update' (Fedora) or 'sudo zypper refresh' (Leap)
  3. 3. Upgrade the adns package: 'sudo dnf update adns' (Fedora) or 'sudo zypper update adns' (Leap)
  4. 4. Verify the installed version is 1.5.2 or later: 'rpm -q adns' and check the version number
  5. 5. Restart any services that use adns to ensure the updated library is loaded
  6. 6. If the fixed version is not available in your current repositories, consider enabling a different repository or building adns 1.5.2 from source

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Fedora Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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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-2017-9103 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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