CVE-2008-1637 Weak cryptography in n/a
Remote attackers can poison the DNS cache due to insufficient randomness in transaction IDs and source ports, affecting PowerDNS Recursor users.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2008-1637?
CVE-2008-1637 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Powerdns Recursor, published on 2 Apr 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
PowerDNS Recursor before 3.1.5 uses insufficient randomness to calculate (1) TRXID values and (2) UDP source port numbers, which makes it easier for remote attackers to poison a DNS cache, related to (a) algorithmic deficiencies in rand and random functions in external libraries, (b) use of a 32-bit seed value, and (c) choice of the time of day as the sole seeding information.
Weakness: CWE-189
Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-1637?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Powerdns Recursor.
How do I fix CVE-2008-1637?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2008-1637 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-1637 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Powerdns Recursor
- CVE-2009-4009 Memory corruption in n/a
- CVE-2020-10030 Memory corruption in n/a
- CVE-2025-59023 Crafted delegations or IP fragments can poison cached delegations in Recursor
- CVE-2025-59030 Insufficient validation of incoming notifies over TCP can lead to a denial of service in Recursor
- CVE-2023-22617 Denial of service in n/a
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2008-1637, DSA-1544-1, GHSA-c5qh-3289-h9w4.