Executive brief
BIND is a critical piece of internet infrastructure used to translate human-readable website names into computer-readable IP addresses. A vulnerability in older versions of this software allows an attacker to take complete control of the server over the network without needing a password. This could lead to a total service outage, data theft, or the redirection of internet traffic to malicious sites.
Technical details
A classic stack-based buffer overflow exists in the inverse query (IQUERY) handling logic of BIND 4.9 and BIND 8. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send a specially crafted DNS inverse query packet to the BIND service, triggering the overflow. This occurs because the software fails to properly validate the length of the input before copying it into a fixed-size buffer. Successful exploitation allows for arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the BIND process, typically root on many legacy installations, leading to full system compromise. This vulnerability is mitigated by disabling inverse queries or upgrading to a patched version of BIND.
Affected products
- ISC BIND 4.9, 8.x
Timeline
- 1998-04-08: disclosed