# CVE-2018-14626: Denial of service in pdns

> Attackers can cause denial of service in PowerDNS Authoritative Server and Recursor by polluting the packet cache with crafted queries.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Nov 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-14626, GHSA-pvqq-mpxw-8x79, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-14626

## What is CVE-2018-14626?

CVE-2018-14626 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Powerdns Recursor, published on 29 Nov 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 4.1.0 up to 4.1.4 inclusive and PowerDNS Recursor 4.0.0 up to 4.1.4 inclusive are vulnerable to a packet cache pollution via crafted query that can lead to denial of service.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-14626?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Powerdns Authoritative, Powerdns Recursor.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-14626?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-14626 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-14626 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Powerdns Recursor

- [CVE-2020-24698](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-24698/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-24696](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-24696/): Race condition in n/a (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2015-5470](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5470/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2026-42001](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42001/): Insufficient Validation of Autoprimary SOA Queries (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2020-24697](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-24697/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-14626 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-14626 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Powerdns Recursor, published on 29 Nov 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-14626 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Powerdns Recursor. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14626/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14626/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-14626
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-14626
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-14626

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14626/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.