F5 Networks BIG-IP : Unbound DNS Cache vulnerabilities (K37661551)

high Nessus Plugin ID 138233

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Synopsis

The remote device is missing a vendor-supplied security patch.

Description

The version of F5 Networks BIG-IP installed on the remote host is prior to 11.6.5.3 / 12.1.6 / 13.1.3.5 / 14.1.2.7 / 15.1.0.5 / 16.0.0. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the K37661551 advisory.

CVE-2020-12662Unbound before 1.10.1 has Insufficient Control of Network Message Volume, aka an NXNSAttack issue. This is triggered by random subdomains in the NSDNAME in NS records.CVE-2020-12663Unbound before 1.10.1 has an infinite loop via malformed DNS answers received from upstream servers.ImpactThere are three types of DNS cache configurations available on the BIG-IP system: a transparent cache, a resolver cache, and a validating resolver cache. Only BIG-IP systems licensed for DNS services and using the DNS Cache feature are vulnerable.Notes:The DNS Cache feature is available only when you licensethe BIG-IP systemfor DNS Services, but you do NOT have to provisionthe BIG-IP GTM or BIG- IP DNS moduleon your BIG-IP system.Starting with BIG-IP 12.0.0, F5 renamed BIG-IP GTM to BIG-IP DNS.DNS Express does not use Unbound and is not vulnerable to either CVE-2020-12662 or CVE-2020-12663.CVE-2020-12662When the DNS Cache feature is enabled on the BIG-IP system, an attacker may exploit this vulnerability to generate a large number of communications between the BIG-IP system and the victim's authoritative DNS server to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) attack.Note: For more information about NXNSAttack, refer to theNXNSAttack research paper.CVE-2020-12663A remote attacker may be able to perform a DoS attack on a DNS cache configured on the BIG-IP system by causing Unbound to become unresponsive.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the F5 Networks BIG-IP security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to one of the non-vulnerable versions listed in the F5 Solution K37661551.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 138233

File Name: f5_bigip_SOL37661551.nasl

Version: 1.9

Type: Local

Family: F5 Networks Local Security Checks

Published: 7/9/2020

Updated: 4/7/2026

Configuration: Enable paranoid mode

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2020-12663

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_domain_name_system, cpe:/h:f5:big-ip, cpe:/a:f5:big-ip_global_traffic_manager

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Settings/ParanoidReport, Host/BIG-IP/hotfix, Host/BIG-IP/modules, Host/BIG-IP/version

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/3/2020

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/19/2020

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2020-12662, CVE-2020-12663

Detections

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