Some versions of BIND can improperly permit recursive query service to unauthorized clients
Published Jan 16, 2019
7.5
HIGHCVSS 3.0
EPSS 11.16%
Description
Change #4777 (introduced in October 2017) introduced an unforeseen issue in releases which were issued after that date, affecting which clients are permitted to make recursive queries to a BIND nameserver. The intended (and documented) behavior is that if an operator has not specified a value for the "allow-recursion" setting, it SHOULD default to one of the following: none, if "recursion no;" is set in named.conf; a value inherited from the "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" settings IF "recursion yes;" (the default for that setting) AND match lists are explicitly set for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" (see the BIND9 Administrative Reference Manual section 6.2 for more details); or the intended default of "allow-recursion {localhost; localnets;};" if "recursion yes;" is in effect and no values are explicitly set for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query". However, because of the regression introduced by change #4777, it is possible when "recursion yes;" is in effect and no match list values are provided for "allow-query-cache" or "allow-query" for the setting of "allow-recursion" to inherit a setting of all hosts from the "allow-query" setting default, improperly permitting recursion to all clients. Affects BIND 9.9.12, 9.10.7, 9.11.3, 9.12.0->9.12.1-P2, the development release 9.13.0, and also releases 9.9.12-S1, 9.10.7-S1, 9.11.3-S1, and 9.11.3-S2 from BIND 9 Supported Preview Edition.
Affected products
-
- Version 9.9.12, 9.10.7, 9.11.3, 9.12.0->9.12.1-P2, the development release 9.13.0, and also releases 9.9.12-S1, 9.10.7-S1, 9.11.3-S1, and 9.11.3-S2 from BIND 9 Supported Preview Edition.StatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
Configuration 1
- 9.9.12
- 9.9.12
- 9.10.7
- 9.10.7
- 9.11.3
- 9.11.3
- 9.11.3
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.0
- 9.12.1
- 9.12.1
- 9.12.1
- 9.13.0
Configuration 2
- 18.04
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
bind
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
bind97
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
bind
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
bind
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
bind
Not affected
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | bind | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | bind97 | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | bind | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | bind | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | bind | Not affected | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
Vendor solution
Future maintenance releases of BIND will correct the regression which introduced this issue but ISC does not believe that replacement security releases of BIND are required, given that several easy, safe, and completely effective configuration workarounds are available for any operators with affected configurations. However, an advance version of the patch diff which will be applied to future versions is available upon request to security-officer@isc.org and a correction for the behavior in question will debut in the release candidates for BIND 9.9.13, BIND 9.10.8, BIND 9.11.4, and BIND 9.12.2.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.1 score for this CVE.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
1 other source (CVE.org) ▾
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 2, 2026.
Score over time
2021–2026- EPSS v1
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Percentile over time
- EPSS v1
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Table of values (21 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2, 2026 | 11.16% (0.11160) | 95.83th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 23, 2026 | 11.07% (0.11070) | 95.35th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 15, 2026 | 18.41% (0.18406) | 96.86th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Oct 8, 2025 | 3.15% (0.03152) | 86.33th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Mar 30, 2025 | 1.79% (0.01793) | 81.13th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Mar 29, 2025 | 4.88% (0.04878) | 82.22th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Jul 20, 2024 | 0.55% (0.00553) | 77.77th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Feb 8, 2024 | 0.55% (0.00553) | 76.87th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Jan 10, 2024 | 1.05% (0.01047) | 82.38th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Jul 8, 2023 | 0.96% (0.00964) | 81.19th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Jun 14, 2023 | 1.45% (0.01452) | 84.76th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| May 8, 2023 | 1.52% (0.01525) | 85.06th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 1.01% (0.01013) | 81.41th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 1.63% (0.01626) | 75.89th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 23, 2023 | 1.63% (0.01626) | 75.84th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 1.63% (0.01626) | 73.79th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 4, 2022 | 1.63% (0.01626) | 52.68th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 3, 2022 | 1.25% (0.01247) | 30.57th | v1 |
| Jan 6, 2022 | 1.25% (0.01247) | 29.93th | v1 |
| Sep 1, 2021 | 1.25% (0.01247) | 68.62th | v1 |
| Apr 14, 2021 | 1.25% (0.01247) | 0.00th | v1 |
References (10)
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1041115 vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5738 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1589616 Issue Tracking
- https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-01616/0/CVE-2018-5738
- https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-01616 x_refsource_CONFIRMMitigationVendor Advisory
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-5738
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-13 vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOThird Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190830-0002/ x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3683-1/ vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUThird Party Advisory
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-5738
| Link | Providers | Tags |
|---|---|---|
| http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1041115 | vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry | |
| https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5738 | Vendor Advisory | |
| https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1589616 | Issue Tracking | |
| https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-01616/0/CVE-2018-5738 | ||
| https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-01616 | x_refsource_CONFIRMMitigationVendor Advisory | |
| https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-5738 | ||
| https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-13 | vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOThird Party Advisory | |
| https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190830-0002/ | x_refsource_CONFIRM | |
| https://usn.ubuntu.com/3683-1/ | vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUThird Party Advisory | |
| https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-5738 |
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.