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CVE-2018-5738


Change #4777 (introduced in October 2017) introduced an unforeseen issue in releases which were issued after that date, affecting which clients are permitted to make recursive queries to a BIND nameserver. The intended (and documented) behavior is that if an operator has not specified a value for the "allow-recursion" setting, it SHOULD default to one of the following: none, if "recursion no;" is set in named.conf; a value inherited from the "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" settings IF "recursion yes;" (the default for that setting) AND match lists are explicitly set for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" (see the BIND9 Administrative Reference Manual section 6.2 for more details); or the intended default of "allow-recursion {localhost; localnets;};" if "recursion yes;" is in effect and no values are explicitly set for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query". However, because of the regression introduced by change #4777, it is possible when "recursion yes;" is in effect and no match list values are provided for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" for the setting of "allow-recursion" to inherit a setting of all hosts from the "allow-query" setting default, improperly permitting recursion to all clients. Affects BIND 9.9.12, 9.10.7, 9.11.3, 9.12.0->9.12.1-P2, the development release 9.13.0, and also releases 9.9.12-S1, 9.10.7-S1, 9.11.3-S1, and 9.11.3-S2 from BIND 9 Supported Preview Edition.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.3, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts limited data confidentiality, for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from isc, from canonical organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2019, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.


Published

2019-01-16T20:29:00.907

Last Modified

2024-11-21T04:09:17.273

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 5.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: NONE
Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-200

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application isc bind 9.9.12 Yes
Application isc bind 9.9.12 Yes
Application isc bind 9.10.7 Yes
Application isc bind 9.10.7 Yes
Application isc bind 9.11.3 Yes
Application isc bind 9.11.3 Yes
Application isc bind 9.11.3 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.0 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.1 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.1 Yes
Application isc bind 9.12.1 Yes
Application isc bind 9.13.0 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For isc's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.