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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-8616

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-05-19
  • WeaknessCWE-400

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-05-1914:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-8616?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-8616?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Isc bind
BranchAffectedFixed in
9.x≥ 9.0.0, ≤ 9.11.18no fix published
9.12≥ 9.12.0, ≤ 9.12.4no fix published
9.13≥ 9.13.0, ≤ 9.13.7no fix published
9.14≥ 9.14.0, ≤ 9.14.11no fix published
9.15≥ 9.15.0, ≤ 9.15.6no fix published
9.16≥ 9.16.0, ≤ 9.16.2no fix published
9.17≥ 9.17.0, ≤ 9.17.1no fix published
9.12= 9.12.4no fix published
9.9= 9.9.3no fix published
9.10= 9.10.5no fix published
9.10= 9.10.7no fix published
9.11= 9.11.3no fix published
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
9.0= 9.0no fix published
10.0= 10.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • bindWolfiall versions · fixed in 0
  • bindSUSE:OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8all versions · fixed in 9.9.9P1-63.17.1
  • bindSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 8all versions · fixed in 9.9.9P1-63.17.1
  • bindSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 7all versions · fixed in 9.9.9P1-63.17.1
  • bindSUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 9.11.2-3.17.1
  • bindSUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP4all versions · fixed in 9.11.2-3.17.1
  • bindSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15all versions · fixed in 9.16.6-12.32.1
  • bindSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5all versions · fixed in 9.11.2-3.17.1

89 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2020-8616 Red Hat Product Security2,918 products fixed · 2 known affected

    bind: BIND does not sufficiently limit the number of fetches performed when processing referrals

    bind as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 · bind97 as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

  • RHSA-2020:3475 Red Hat Product Security151 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: bind security update

  • RHSA-2020:3470 Red Hat Product Security90 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: bind security update

  • RHSA-2020:3471 Red Hat Product Security25 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: bind security update

  • RHSA-2020:3433 Red Hat Product Security90 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: bind security update

  • RHSA-2020:3378 Red Hat Product Security13 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: bind security update

7 more advisories

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:3475 · 151 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 After installing the update, the BIND daemon (named) will be restarted automatically.
  2. Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:3475 · 151 productsRed Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update as soon as possible.

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • CNACVSS 3.18.6known since 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.18.6read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.05read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-400read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score10.9 %read 2026-11-02
  • OSVaffected packages—
  • GitHub Advisoriesadvisory—

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2020-05-19
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-rc96-hg8v-6p4g

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-8616?

A malicious actor who intentionally exploits this lack of effective limitation on the number of fetches performed when processing referrals can, through the use of specially crafted referrals, cause a recursing server to issue a very large number of fetches in an attempt to process the referral. This has at least two potential effects: The performance of the recursing server can potentially be degraded by the additional work required to perform these fetches, and The attacker can exploit this behavior to use the recursing server as a reflector in a reflection attack with a high amplification factor.

Is CVE-2020-8616 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-8616 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 10.9% on 2026-11-03, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-8616?

CVE-2020-8616 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.6 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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