Unrated

PowerDNS Crafted DNS Packet Resource-Exhaustion Denial of Service

IdentifiersCVE-2026-52682CWE-400

CVE-2026-52682 is an uncontrolled resource-consumption vulnerability in PowerDNS Authoritative Server, PowerDNS Recursor, and dnsdist. Processing a specially crafted DNS packet from a malicious DNS server can cause excessive memory and CPU consumption, resulting in a denial-of-service condition. Affected releases include Authoritative Server 4.9.16, 5.0.6, and 5.1.3; Recursor 5.2.12, 5.3.9, and 5.4.4; and dnsdist 1.9.15, 2.0.7, and 2.1.0.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

An unauthenticated network attacker can exhaust memory and CPU resources of an affected PowerDNS service, degrading or interrupting DNS processing and availability. The reported impact is denial of service; no system-compromise impact is identified.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patched versions can be deployed, restrict PowerDNS services' exposure to untrusted DNS servers where operationally feasible, and monitor affected instances for anomalous memory or CPU consumption. No complete workaround is specified.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade to a fixed PowerDNS release: Authoritative Server 4.9.17, 5.0.7, or 5.1.4; Recursor 5.2.13, 5.3.10, or 5.4.5; or dnsdist 1.9.16, 2.0.8, or 2.1.1. On Alpine Linux, update pdns packages to 5.0.7-r0 or later, pdns-recursor to 5.4.5-r0 or later, and dnsdist to 2.0.8-r0 or later. On Debian stable, apply the applicable security updates for the affected PowerDNS package.

PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType

PowerdnsAuthoritative Serverapplication

PowerdnsDnsdistapplication

PowerdnsPdns-Recursorapplication

PowerdnsRecursorapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

10 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.

10 SOURCESView more in app

tenable cloud security pluginsNews

Aug 7, 2026

Alpine: multiple pdns packages: security update to 5.0.7-r0 | Tenable®

A high-severity vulnerability affecting Alpine Linux pdns packages prior to version 5.0.7-r0.

tenable cloud security pluginsNews

Aug 7, 2026

Alpine: multiple pdns-recursor packages: security update to 5.... | Tenable®

A high-severity vulnerability affecting Alpine Linux pdns-recursor packages prior to version 5.4.5-r0.

tenable cloud security pluginsNews

Aug 7, 2026

Alpine: multiple dnsdist packages: security update to 2.0.8-r0 | Tenable®

A high-severity security vulnerability affecting Alpine Linux dnsdist packages prior to version 2.0.8-r0.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.

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Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity3