CVE-2015-8899 Denial of service in n/a

High 7.5 Published 30 Jun 2016 Updated 6 Aug 2024

Remote attackers can crash the Dnsmasq DNS server by sending crafted replies with empty A or AAAA records, causing a denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2015-8899?

CVE-2015-8899 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 30 Jun 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Dnsmasq before 2.76 allows remote servers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a reply with an empty DNS address that has an (1) A or (2) AAAA record defined locally.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-8899?

It affects 2 products.

Linux distribution packages (11)

`dnsmasq` SUSE:Cloud Compute Node for SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 5	All versions	`2.71-6.3.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP2	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4	All versions	`2.71-0.16.3`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 11 SP4	All versions	`2.71-0.16.3`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2	All versions	`2.71-13.1`
`dnsmasq` SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 6	All versions	`2.71-13.1`

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Thekelleys Dnsmasq.

How do I fix CVE-2015-8899?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2015-8899 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-8899 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8899, GHSA-f299-rcx3-c9vw, SUSE-SU-2016:3199-1, SUSE-SU-2016:3257-1, SUSE-SU-2016:3269-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8899 and 1 more.