7.5

CVE-2023-22617: powerdns recursor Uncontrolled Recursion

CVSS: 7.5v3.1HighModified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-22617DEBIAN-CVE-2023-22617openSUSE-SU-2024:12628-1
Published 21-01-2023Last modified 03-04-2025
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-22617 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in powerdns recursor. EPSS estimates a 7.32% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
31/100
0100
Medium · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
7.5/10
010
High · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
7.32%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Timeline

  1. 21-01-2023
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 03-04-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A remote attacker might be able to cause infinite recursion in PowerDNS Recursor 4.8.0 via a DNS query that retrieves DS records for a misconfigured domain, because QName minimization is used in QM fallback mode. This is fixed in 4.8.1.

CVSS metrics

4 scores · 4 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

7.32%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

94%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

0.00 pp

From 7.32% on 21-09-2026

21-09-202621-10-2026
EPSS score
7.32%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Debian1 product
  • pdns-recursor< 4.8.1-1
Opensuse1 product
  • pdns-recursor&distro=openSUSE Tumbleweed< 4.8.1-1.1
Powerdns1 product
Ubuntu1 product
  • pdns-recursorAll versions (No fix recorded)

4 vendors · 4 products

References

10 links