CVE-2020-24697
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in PowerDNS Authoritative through 4.3.0 when --enable-experimental-gss-tsig is used. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can cause a denial of service by sending crafted queries with a GSS-TSIG signature.
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 confidencePowerDNS Authoritative Server versions through 4.3.0 contain a denial-of-service vulnerability in the experimental GSS-TSIG feature. When this feature is enabled at compile time (--enable-experimental-gss-tsig), a remote unauthenticated attacker can trigger a crash or hang by sending specially crafted queries containing malformed GSS-TSIG signatures, causing the server to fail processing legitimate requests.
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<= 4.3.0CVSS 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:3.1/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify PowerDNS Authoritative Server versionRun 'pdns --version' or 'pdns_server --version' to display the installed version number, or use the package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q pdns' or 'dpkg -l pdns')Affected if The reported version is 4.3.0 or lower, indicating the server is within the affected version range
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Confirm GSS-TSIG was compiled inRun 'pdns --config' or 'pdns_server --config' and search for any gss-tsig related options in the output. If GSS-TSIG was compiled with --enable-experimental-gss-tsig, related configuration directives will appear in the available settingsAffected if GSS-TSIG options are present in the configuration output, meaning the feature was compiled into the binary
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Check for active GSS-TSIG configurationInspect the PowerDNS configuration file (typically /etc/pdns/pdns.conf or /etc/powerdns/pdns.conf) for directives such as 'gss-tsig-enable', 'gss-tsig-keytab', or 'gss-tsig-algorithm'Affected if Any gss-tsig configuration directives are found with non-comment entries, meaning the feature is actively enabled
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Review runtime logs for GSS-TSIG activityExamine PowerDNS logs (journalctl -u pdns, syslog, or /var/log/pdns.log) for entries containing 'GSS' or 'TSIG' which indicate the feature has been used or attemptedAffected if Logs show GSS-TSIG related queries or errors, confirming the feature is processing GSS-TSIG requests
The environment is affected only if PowerDNS Authoritative Server version is 4.3.0 or lower AND the GSS-TSIG feature was compiled in with --enable-experimental-gss-tsig AND is enabled in the configuration or actively processing GSS-TSIG queries.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataDisable the experimental GSS-TSIG feature if currently enabled, or upgrade to PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.3.1 or later which contains the security fix. If GSS-TSIG is required for legitimate DNSSEC key management, apply the vendor patch immediately.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-24697 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-24697 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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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