hickory-proto vulnerable to CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n²) name compression
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub. Impact type from CWE-407.
Summary
During message encoding, `hickory-proto`'s `BinEncoder` stores pointers to labels that are candidates for name compression in a `Vec<(usize, Vec<u8>)>`. The name compression logic then searches for matches with a linear scan. A malicious message with many records can both introduce many candidate labels, and invoke this linear scan many times. This can amplify CPU exhaustion in DoS attacks. This is similar to [CVE-2024-8508](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2024-8508.txt). ### Reporter Qifan Zhang, Palo Alto Networks
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | hickory-proto (crates.io) | 0.3.1 to before 0.26.1 | 0.26.1 | Patch available | GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp |
- hickory-proto (crates.io) Vendor— Affected 0.3.1 to before 0.26.1 Fixed in 0.26.1 Patch available GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp hickory-proto (crates.io) Fixed in 0.26.1 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp
References
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences