CVE-2016-7068: Debian Linux

High severity, CVSS 7.5. EPSS: 7.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

An issue has been found in PowerDNS before 3.4.11 and 4.0.2, and PowerDNS recursor before 3.7.4 and 4.0.4, allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause an abnormal CPU usage load on the PowerDNS server by sending crafted DNS queries, which might result in a partial denial of service if the system becomes overloaded. This issue is based on the fact that the PowerDNS server parses all records present in a query regardless of whether they are needed or even legitimate. A specially crafted query containing a large number of records can be used to take advantage of that behaviour.

Affected products

• Debian Debian Linux: version 8.0 only
• Powerdns Authoritative: before 3.4.11 (fixed in 3.4.11); from 4.0.0, before 4.0.2 (fixed in 4.0.2)
• Powerdns Recursor: before 3.7.4 (fixed in 3.7.4); from 4.0.0, before 4.0.4 (fixed in 4.0.4)

Published 2018-09-11. Last modified 2026-06-17.