CVE-2018-10851

PowerDNS Authoritative Server 3.3.0 up to 4.1.4 excluding 4.1.5 and 4.0.6, and PowerDNS Recursor 3.2 up to 4.1.4 excluding 4.1.5 and 4.0.9, are vulnerable to a memory leak while parsing malformed records that can lead to remote denial of service.

Published: 2018-11-29 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-10851 is rated Moderate Risk (58.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 6.04%, 92th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +5.93% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-10851

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.11% 6.04% +5.93%
2 2026-02-23 0.22% 0.11% -0.11%
3 2026-02-22 — 0.22% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-10851

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.6 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-10851

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-10851

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-10851: 2 source package rows (pdns, pdns-recursor); 14 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 14, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-10851
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-10851 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (pdns, pdns-recursor), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-10851
suse medium CVE-2018-10851 severity moderate: SUSE including 156 source package names (ardana-ansible-8.0+git.1583432621.24fa60e-3.70.1, ardana-barbican-8.0+git.1585152761.8ef3d61-4.33.1, …), 262 product×package rows across 9 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Manager Proxy 3.1, … (9 product lines)): Fixed 262. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-10851/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-10851 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (pdns, pdns-recursor), 34 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 15, ignored 11, released 6, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-10851

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-10851

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
powerdns authoritative >= 3.3, <= 4.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:powerdns:authoritative:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
powerdns recursor >= 3.2, <= 4.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:powerdns:recursor:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-10851

cvelogic Threat Intelligence