CVE-2024-25581: Transfer requests received over DoH can lead to a denial of service in DNSdist

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-05-14 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

When incoming DNS over HTTPS support is enabled using the nghttp2 provider, and queries are routed to a tcp-only or DNS over TLS backend, an attacker can trigger an assertion failure in DNSdist by sending a request for a zone transfer (AXFR or IXFR) over DNS over HTTPS, causing the process to stop and thus leading to a Denial of Service. DNS over HTTPS is not enabled by default, and backends are using plain DNS (Do53) by default.

Affected products

PowerDNS DNSdist: 1.9.0, 1.9.1, 1.9.2, 1.9.3

References

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/05/13/1
https://dnsdist.org/security-advisories/powerdns-advisory-for-dnsdist-2024-03.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/05/13/1
https://dnsdist.org/security-advisories/powerdns-advisory-for-dnsdist-2024-03.html

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