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NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

CVE-2020-12244: An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 through 4.3.0 where records in the answer section of a NXDOMAIN response lacking an SOA w

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 2.4% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 84.3% of all records.
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.10) 4.1.16-r0; pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.11) 4.2.2-r0; pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.12) 4.3.1-r0.
  • Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Low priority for now. Upgrade to pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.10) 4.1.16-r0; pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.11) 4.2.2-r0; pdns-recursor (Alpine:v3.12) 4.3.1-r0 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 through 4.3.0 where records in the answer section of a NXDOMAIN response lacking an SOA were not properly validated in SyncRes::processAnswer, allowing an attacker to bypass DNSSEC validation.

HighCVSS 7.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
May 19, 2020
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
2.4% · 84th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 2.4%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
powerdnsrecursor
fedoraprojectfedora
debiandebian linux
opensusebackports sle
opensuseleap

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • debian debian linux10.0
  • fedoraproject fedora31
  • fedoraproject fedora32
  • opensuse backports sle15.0
  • opensuse leap15.1
  • powerdns recursor4.1.0 and later · up to 4.3.0 inclusive

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Alpine:v3.10pdns-recursorbefore 4.1.16-r04.1.16-r0
Alpine:v3.11pdns-recursorbefore 4.2.2-r04.2.2-r0
Alpine:v3.12pdns-recursorbefore 4.3.1-r04.3.1-r0
Debian:10pdns-recursorbefore 4.1.11-1+deb10u14.1.11-1+deb10u1
Debian:12pdns-recursorbefore 4.3.1-14.3.1-1
openSUSE:Leap 15.1pdns-recursorbefore 4.1.12-bp151.4.3.14.1.12-bp151.4.3.1
openSUSE:Tumbleweedpdns-recursorbefore 4.5.5-1.34.5.5-1.3
SUSE:Package Hub 12 SP1pdns-recursorbefore 4.1.12-bp151.4.3.14.1.12-bp151.4.3.1

Same product

powerdns: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2018-16855An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor before version 4.1.8 where a remote attacker sending a DNS query can trigger an out-of-bounds m
    48Plan
  • CVE-2017-15120An issue has been found in the parsing of authoritative answers in PowerDNS Recursor before 4.0.8, leading to a NULL pointer dereference whe
    45Plan
  • CVE-2009-4009Buffer overflow in PowerDNS Recursor before 3.1.7.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) or possibly execute
    45Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2019-3806Jan 29, 2019 · An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor versions after 4.1.3 before 4.1.9 where Lua hooks are not properly applied to queries received
    32Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2019-3807Jan 29, 2019 · An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor versions 4.1.x before 4.1.9 where records in the answer section of responses received from auth
    39Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2020-10030May 19, 2020 · An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0.
    42Plan

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
alpine:pdns-recursor4.1.16-r0 · Alpine:v3.10Package registry (OSV)
debian:pdns-recursor4.3.1-1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)
opensuse:pdns-recursor4.1.12-bp151.4.3.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.1Package registry (OSV)
suse:pdns-recursor4.1.12-bp151.4.3.1 · SUSE:Package Hub 12 SP1Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

All national notices →

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
none
Availability
none
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-347 · Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Root cause

The verifier takes the algorithm to verify with from the token’s own header. Untrusted data ends up deciding its own verification rule.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-347 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

ts
const claims = jwt.verify(token, publicKey);

Fixed

ts
const claims = jwt.verify(token, publicKey, {  algorithms: ["RS256"],  issuer: "https://id.example.com",  audience: "portal",});

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (5 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records