CVE-2023-3341: A stack exhaustion flaw in control channel code may cause named to terminate unexpectedly

CVE: CVE-2023-3341

Document version: 2.0

Posting date: 20 September 2023

Program impacted: BIND 9

Versions affected:

BIND

• 9.2.0 -> 9.16.43
• 9.18.0 -> 9.18.18
• 9.19.0 -> 9.19.16

(Versions prior to 9.11.37 were not assessed.)

BIND Supported Preview Edition

• 9.9.3-S1 -> 9.16.43-S1
• 9.18.0-S1 -> 9.18.18-S1

(Versions prior to 9.11.37-S1 were not assessed.)

Severity: High

Exploitable: Remotely

Description:

The code that processes control channel messages sent to named calls certain functions recursively during packet parsing. Recursion depth is only limited by the maximum accepted packet size; depending on the environment, this may cause the packet-parsing code to run out of available stack memory, causing named to terminate unexpectedly. Since each incoming control channel message is fully parsed before its contents are authenticated, exploiting this flaw does not require the attacker to hold a valid RNDC key; only network access to the control channel's configured TCP port is necessary.

Impact:

By sending a specially crafted message over the control channel, an attacker can cause the packet-parsing code to run out of available stack memory, causing named to terminate unexpectedly. However, the attack only works in environments where the stack size available to each process/thread is small enough; the exact threshold depends on multiple factors and is therefore impossible to specify universally.

CVSS Score: 7.5

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

For more information on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and to obtain your specific environmental score please visit: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H&version=3.1.

Workarounds:

By default, named only allows control-channel connections over the loopback interface, making this attack impossible to carry out over the network. When enabling remote access to the control channel's configured TCP port, care should be taken to limit such access to trusted IP ranges on the network level, effectively preventing unauthorized parties from carrying out the attack described in this advisory.

Active exploits:

We are not aware of any active exploits.

Solution:

Upgrade to the patched release most closely related to your current version of BIND 9:

• 9.16.44
• 9.18.19
• 9.19.17

BIND Supported Preview Edition is a special feature preview branch of BIND provided to eligible ISC support customers.

• 9.16.44-S1
• 9.18.19-S1

Acknowledgments:

ISC would like to thank Eric Sesterhenn from X41 D-Sec GmbH for bringing this vulnerability to our attention.

Document revision history:

• 1.0 Early Notification, 13 September 2023
• 2.0 Public disclosure, 20 September 2023

Related documents:

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

Do you still have questions? Questions regarding this advisory should be mailed to bind-security@isc.org or posted as confidential GitLab issues at https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/issues/new?issue[confidential]=true.

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/download/.

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 at https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-00861.

The Knowledgebase article https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2023-3341 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.