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PowerDNS Recursor EUVDEUVD-2026-39358

| CVE-2026-42388 MEDIUM
Improper Input Validation (CWE-20)
2026-06-25 OX GHSA-wmff-hvrr-9ch3
5.9
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: OX
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Severity by source

Vendor (OX) PRIMARY
5.9 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
5.9 MEDIUM

Network-reachable via crafted catalog zone data with no auth to Recursor itself; AC:H for non-default catalog zone configuration requirement; pure availability crash impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (OX).

CVSS VectorVendor: OX

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch available
Jun 25, 2026 - 15:17 EUVD
Analysis Generated
Jun 25, 2026 - 14:16 vuln.today

DescriptionCVE.org

Incomplete validation of the SOA record present in a catalog zone might lead to a crash.

AnalysisAI

PowerDNS Recursor crashes when processing a malformed SOA record within a catalog zone, resulting in a denial of service for all DNS resolution handled by the affected instance. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) confirms network-reachable unauthenticated exploitation, but high attack complexity reflects the non-default catalog zone configuration required. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Technical ContextAI

PowerDNS Recursor is an open-source recursive DNS resolver widely used in enterprise and ISP environments. Catalog zones are a DNS provisioning mechanism (standardized in RFC 9432) enabling DNS operators to automatically manage secondary zones through a dedicated 'catalog' zone served over DNS. An SOA (Start of Authority) record is mandatory in every DNS zone and encodes serial, refresh, and TTL metadata. The vulnerability lies in incomplete validation logic when the Recursor parses SOA records encountered while processing a catalog zone - an unexpected or malformed SOA record bypasses sufficient validation and triggers a fatal crash. The CPE (cpe:2.3:a:powerdns:recursor:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) spans all recorded Recursor versions with no version floor or ceiling specified in the provided data. No CWE is assigned by the reporter; based on the description the root cause class is most consistent with CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation) or CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference), though this is inferred rather than confirmed.

RemediationAI

Apply the vendor-released patch per the advisory at https://docs.powerdns.com/recursor/security-advisories/powerdns-advisory-powerdns-2026-08.html - the exact fix version must be confirmed from that advisory, as it was not provided in the available data. As a compensating control where immediate patching is not possible, operators should audit whether catalog zone support is actively required; if it is not, disabling catalog zone functionality removes the attack surface entirely without impacting standard recursive resolution. Disabling catalog zones may require manual zone provisioning workflows as a trade-off. Additionally, restricting which authoritative servers are trusted as catalog zone sources (via ACL or TSIG authentication on zone transfers) reduces the attacker's ability to inject a malformed SOA record. Monitor for unexpected Recursor process terminations as a detection signal.

CVE-2016-5427 HIGH
7.5 Sep 21

PowerDNS (aka pdns) Authoritative Server before 3.4.10 does not properly handle a . Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this

CVE-2016-5426 HIGH
7.5 Sep 21

PowerDNS (aka pdns) Authoritative Server before 3.4.10 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (backend CPU

CVE-2019-3871 HIGH POC
8.8 Mar 21

A vulnerability was found in PowerDNS Authoritative Server before 4.0.7 and before 4.1.7. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8)

CVE-2021-36754 HIGH POC
7.5 Jul 30

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.5.0 before 4.5.1 allows anybody to crash the process by sending a specific query (QTYPE

CVE-2012-1193 MEDIUM POC
6.4 Feb 17

The resolver in PowerDNS Recursor (aka pdns_recursor) 3.3 overwrites cached server names and TTL values in NS records du

CVE-2020-24698 CRITICAL
9.8 Oct 02

An issue was discovered in PowerDNS Authoritative through 4.3.0 when --enable-experimental-gss-tsig is used. Rated criti

CVE-2019-3807 CRITICAL
9.8 Jan 29

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor versions 4.1.x before 4.1.9 where records in the answer section of response

CVE-2017-7557 HIGH
8.8 Aug 22

dnsdist version 1.1.0 is vulnerable to a flaw in authentication mechanism for REST API potentially allowing CSRF attack.

CVE-2020-10030 HIGH
8.8 May 19

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 up to and including 4.3.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulne

CVE-2026-42000 HIGH
8.6 May 21

Denial of service in PowerDNS Authoritative DNS server (versions 4.9.0-4.9.14 and 5.0.0-5.0.4) arises from insufficient

CVE-2026-24028 HIGH
8.2 Mar 31

Out-of-bounds read in PowerDNS dnsdist allows unauthenticated remote attackers to trigger denial of service or potential

CVE-2025-59023 HIGH
8.2 Feb 09

Crafted delegations or IP fragments can poison cached delegations in Recursor. [CVSS 8.2 HIGH]

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate

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EUVD-2026-39358 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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