CVE-2016-2848: A packet with malformed options can trigger an assertion failure in ISC BIND versions released prior to May 2013 and in packages derived from releases prior to that date
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CVE-2016-2848: A packet with malformed options can trigger an assertion failure in ISC BIND versions released prior to May 2013 and in packages derived from releases prior to that date

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Article summary

Please read the "Versions affected" and "Solutions" sections of this advisory carefully
This article discusses a vulnerability in BIND that was corrected in ISC-distributed versions in May 2013.  However, some versions of BIND distributed by other parties continued to be vulnerable after that date.

CVE: CVE-2016-2848

Document version: 2.0

Posting date: 20 October 2016

Program impacted: BIND

Versions affected: 9.1.0 -> 9.8.4-P2, 9.9.0 -> 9.9.2-P2

Severity: High

Exploitable: Remotely

Description:

A packet with a malformed options section can be used to deliberately trigger an assertion failure affecting versions of BIND which do not contain change #3548, which was first included in ISC BIND 9 releases in May 2013. Current ISC versions of BIND are safe from this vulnerability, but repackaged versions distributed by other parties may be vulnerable if they were forked from ISC's source before change #3548.

Impact:

A server vulnerable to this defect can be forced to exit with an assertion failure if it receives a malformed packet. Authoritative and recursive servers are both vulnerable.

CVSS Score: 7.8

CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C)

For more information on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and to obtain your specific environmental score please visit: http://nvd.nist.gov/cvss.cfm?calculator&adv&version=2&vector=(AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C).

Workarounds: None.

Active exploits: No known active exploits.

Solution:

The vulnerability described in this security advisory was corrected by bug fixes which occurred during the normal course of BIND 9 development, and release versions of BIND 9 published by ISC have been safe against this vulnerability since May 2013.

However, versions which were released prior to that date, including some versions which have been used as the basis for installable packages by operating system vendors who maintain their own BIND versions, may be vulnerable.

The CHANGES file distributed with every version of BIND 9 source contains a chronological list of source code changes in each branch's history. Safe versions of BIND contain fix #3548. If you did not receive source code with your distribution of BIND 9 and cannot check CHANGES, check with the package provider who has furnished the BIND 9 distribution you are using. Current versions of BIND 9 available from ISC are confirmed to be free of the vulnerability. These can all be downloaded from https://www.isc.org/downloads.

  • BIND 9 version 9.9.9-P3
  • BIND 9 version 9.10.4-P3
  • BIND 9 version 9.11.0

BIND 9 Supported Preview edition is a feature preview version of BIND provided exclusively to eligible ISC Support customers. No release versions of BIND 9 Supported Preview Edition are vulnerable to this defect.

Acknowledgements: ISC would like to thank Toshifumi Sakaguchi for discovering this vulnerability.

Document revision history:

1.0 Advance Notification, 13 October 2016
1.1 Public disclosure date changed, 14 October 2016
2.0 Public disclosure, 20 October 2016
2.1 Removed references to test versions; corrected version of 9.11 that contains the fix, 20 October 2016
2.2 Corrected final affected versions of 9.8 and 9.9, 20 October 2016

Related Documents:

See our BIND 9 Security Vulnerability Matrix for a complete listing of security vulnerabilities and versions affected.

If you'd like more information on ISC Subscription Support and Advance Security Notifications, please visit https://www.isc.org/support/.

Do you still have questions? Questions regarding this advisory should go to security-officer@isc.orgTo report a new issue, please encrypt your message using security-officer@isc.org's PGP key which can be found here: https://www.isc.org/downloads/software-support-policy/openpgp-key/. If you are unable to use encrypted email, you may also report new issues at: https://www.isc.org/community/report-bug/.

Note:

ISC patches only currently supported versions. When possible we indicate EOL versions affected.  (For current information on which versions are actively supported, please see https://www.isc.org/downloads/). 

ISC Security Vulnerability Disclosure Policy:

Details of our current security advisory policy and practice can be found in the ISC Software Defect and Security Vulnerability Disclosure Policy.

This Knowledgebase article is the complete and official security advisory document.

Legal Disclaimer:

Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) is providing this notice on an "AS IS" basis. No warranty or guarantee of any kind is expressed in this notice and none should be implied. ISC expressly excludes and disclaims any warranties regarding this notice or materials referred to in this notice, including, without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, absence of hidden defects, or of non-infringement. Your use or reliance on this notice or materials referred to in this notice is at your own risk. ISC may change this notice at any time.  A stand-alone copy or paraphrase of the text of this document that omits the document URL is an uncontrolled copy. Uncontrolled copies may lack important information, be out of date, or contain factual errors.