CVE-2021-25216

A second vulnerability in BIND's GSSAPI security policy negotiation can be targeted by a buffer overflow attack

CRITICAL
9.8
CVSS Score
Published: April 29, 2021 at 12:55 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:41 AM UTC
23 products affected across 4 vendorsDebian LinuxActive IQ Unified ManagerCloud Backup

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Severity
CRITICAL9.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 83%

Description

In BIND 9.5.0 -> 9.11.29, 9.12.0 -> 9.16.13, and versions BIND 9.11.3-S1 -> 9.11.29-S1 and 9.16.8-S1 -> 9.16.13-S1 of BIND Supported Preview Edition, as well as release versions 9.17.0 -> 9.17.1 of the BIND 9.17 development branch, BIND servers are vulnerable if they are running an affected version and are configured to use GSS-TSIG features. In a configuration which uses BIND's default settings the vulnerable code path is not exposed, but a server can be rendered vulnerable by explicitly setting values for the tkey-gssapi-keytab or tkey-gssapi-credential configuration options. Although the default configuration is not vulnerable, GSS-TSIG is frequently used in networks where BIND is integrated with Samba, as well as in mixed-server environments that combine BIND servers with Active Directory domain controllers. For servers that meet these conditions, the ISC SPNEGO implementation is vulnerable to various attacks, depending on the CPU architecture for which BIND was built: For named binaries compiled for 64-bit platforms, this flaw can be used to trigger a buffer over-read, leading to a server crash. For named binaries compiled for 32-bit platforms, this flaw can be used to trigger a server crash due to a buffer overflow and possibly also to achieve remote code execution. We have determined that standard SPNEGO implementations are available in the MIT and Heimdal Kerberos libraries, which support a broad range of operating systems, rendering the ISC implementation unnecessary and obsolete. Therefore, to reduce the attack surface for BIND users, we will be removing the ISC SPNEGO implementation in the April releases of BIND 9.11 and 9.16 (it had already been dropped from BIND 9.17). We would not normally remove something from a stable ESV (Extended Support Version) of BIND, but since system libraries can replace the ISC SPNEGO implementation, we have made an exception in this case for reasons of stability and security.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 9.11.31v < 9.11.31-S1v < 9.16.14v < 9.16.14-S1v < 9.17.29.0.0 ≤ v < 9.11.319.12.0 ≤ v < 9.16.159.17.0 ≤ v < 9.17.129.10.5 s19.10.7 s19.11.12 s19.11.21 s19.11.27 s19.11.29 s19.11.3 s19.11.5 s39.11.5 s59.11.5 s69.11.6 s19.11.7 s19.11.8 s19.16.11 s19.16.13 s19.16.8 s19.9.12 s19.9.13 s19.9.3 s1
Affected range stops below 9.11.31, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.11.31-S1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.16.14, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.16.14-S1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.16.15, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.17.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.17.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
All versions
netapp-aff-500f (same device)
All versions
netapp-aff-a250 (same device)
All versions
All versions
netapp-h300e (same device)
All versions
netapp-h300s (same device)
All versions
netapp-h410s (same device)
All versions
netapp-h500e (same device)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (10)

Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/29/1
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/29/2
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/29/3
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/29/4
x_refsource_CONFIRMNot Applicable
https://kb.isc.org/v1/docs/cve-2021-25215
Mailing Listx_refsource_MLISTThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/05/msg00001.html

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-125

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