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AuthoritativeApplication · Powerdns

CVE-2018-14626

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-11-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.1.4 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
PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.1.0 up to 4.1.4 inclusive and PowerDNS Recursor 4.0.0 up to 4.1.4 inclusive are vulnerable to a packet cache pollution via crafted query that can lead to denial of service.

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 Authoritative Server 4.1.0-4.1.4 and Recursor 4.0.0-4.1.4 are vulnerable to packet cache pollution via crafted DNS queries. Attackers can inject malformed or malicious responses into the DNS cache, causing the server to serve incorrect answers to legitimate queries, resulting in denial of service or potential cache poisoning.

MitigationUpgrade PowerDNS Authoritative Server and Recursor to versions beyond 4.1.4 (e.g., 4.1.5 or later) to remediate this 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
AuthoritativeApplication
Affected:>= 4.1.0, <= 4.1.4
RecursorApplication
Affected:>= 4.0.0, <= 4.1.4

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:3.0/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. Identify PowerDNS product and version
    Run 'pdns_version' for Authoritative or 'rec_control version' for Recursor. Alternatively, check installed packages with 'dpkg -l | grep pdns' or 'rpm -qa | grep pdns'
    Affected if Version is 4.1.0-4.1.4 for Authoritative or 4.0.0-4.1.4 for Recursor
  2. Confirm PowerDNS service is running
    Run 'systemctl status pdns' for Authoritative or 'systemctl status pdns-recursor' for Recursor, or check with 'ps aux | grep pdns'
    Affected if The service is running and version is within affected ranges
  3. Verify packet-cache is enabled
    For Recursor, run 'rec_control get packet-cache-ttl' or check configuration file for 'packet-cache-ttl' setting. For Authoritative, check for 'cache-ttl' in pdns.conf
    Affected if Packet caching is enabled and version is within affected ranges

A system is affected if it runs PowerDNS Authoritative 4.1.0-4.1.4 or Recursor 4.0.0-4.1.4 with packet caching enabled.

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 4.1.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PowerDNS Authoritative Server and Recursor to versions beyond 4.1.4 (e.g., 4.1.5 or later) to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in Authoritative Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing5.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,790
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,464.

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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-2018-14626 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