CVE-2020-12244 Security feature bypass in n/a

What is CVE-2020-12244?

CVE-2020-12244 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 19 May 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Recursor 4.1.0 through 4.3.0 where records in the answer section of a NXDOMAIN response lacking an SOA were not properly validated in SyncRes::processAnswer, allowing an attacker to bypass DNSSEC validation.

Weakness: CWE-347

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-12244?

It affects 5 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Opensuse Backports Sle, Opensuse Leap, Powerdns Recursor.

How do I fix CVE-2020-12244?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2020-12244 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-12244 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12244, GHSA-52f2-92w4-mx97, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12244.