CVE-2023-31137

[CVE catalog]

Severity

High · CVSS 7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Published

May 9, 2023, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Updated

Aug 27, 2026, 11:04:47 PM UTC

Source

[NVD] · [CVE record]

EPSS

1.14% · Oct 25, 2026

MaraDNS is open-source software that implements the Domain Name System (DNS). In version 3.5.0024 and prior, a remotely exploitable integer underflow vulnerability in the DNS packet decompression function allows an attacker to cause a Denial of Service by triggering an abnormal program termination. The vulnerability exists in the `decomp_get_rddata` function within the `Decompress.c` file. When handling a DNS packet with an Answer RR of qtype 16 (TXT record) and any qclass, if the `rdlength` is smaller than `rdata`, the result of the line `Decompress.c:886` is a negative number `len = rdlength - total;`. This value is then passed to the `decomp_append_bytes` function without proper validation, causing the program to attempt to allocate a massive chunk of memory that is impossible to allocate. Consequently, the program exits with an error code of 64, causing a Denial of Service. One proposed fix for this vulnerability is to patch `Decompress.c:887` by breaking `if(len <= 0)`, which has been incorporated in version 3.5.0036 via commit bab062bde40b2ae8a91eecd522e84d8b993bab58.