Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-4408

DoS in Isc Bind 9.0.0 – 9.16.45

Published
13 February 2024
Modified
14 March 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.013 69th percentile
Risk Priority 60 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-4408 is a high-severity Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity (CWE-407) vulnerability in Isc Bind. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 31% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SC-6 (Resource Availability) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The DNS message parsing code in `named` includes a section whose computational complexity is overly high. It does not cause problems for typical DNS traffic, but crafted queries and responses may cause excessive CPU load on the affected `named` instance…

more

by exploiting this flaw. This issue affects both authoritative servers and recursive resolvers. This issue affects BIND 9 versions 9.0.0 through 9.16.45, 9.18.0 through 9.18.21, 9.19.0 through 9.19.19, 9.9.3-S1 through 9.11.37-S1, 9.16.8-S1 through 9.16.45-S1, and 9.18.11-S1 through 9.18.21-S1.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-5679Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2023-5517Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2024-27316Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2024-28757Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2023-6516Same product: Isc Bind
CVE-2023-4236Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2023-2828Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2024-25111Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora
CVE-2023-5680Same product: Isc Bind
CVE-2023-50868Same product: Fedoraproject Fedora

Affected Assets

netapp
ontap
9.14.1, 9.15.1
fedoraproject
fedora
38, 39
isc
bind
9.16.11, 9.16.12, 9.16.13, 9.16.14, 9.16.21 · 9.0.0 — 9.16.45 · 9.18.0 — 9.18.21 · 9.19.0 — 9.19.19

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.9

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Denial-of-service protection directly reduces the impact of resource exhaustion triggered by worst-case algorithmic inputs.

Resource availability allocation limits blast radius when an inefficient algorithm is forced into its worst case.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (code review, complexity analysis, safe algorithm selection) prevent introduction of exploitable worst-case behavior.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and resources can detect the performance impact of triggered worst-case complexity.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Identifying and recording algorithmic-complexity vulnerabilities directly addresses the root cause before exploitation.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can uncover performance issues stemming from algorithmic complexity.

mitigates

Redundancy of processing facilities can absorb resource exhaustion from inefficient algorithms.

finds

Monitoring activities can identify anomalous resource consumption indicative of algorithmic complexity attacks.

prevents

Secure development life cycle includes design reviews that can catch inefficient algorithms before deployment.

prevents

Secure system architecture principles encourage selection of algorithms with acceptable worst-case complexity.

prevents

Secure coding practices can include guidelines to avoid or mitigate inefficient algorithms.

References