Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2017-9103

critical Nessus Plugin ID 253920

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- An issue was discovered in adns before 1.5.2. pap_mailbox822 does not properly check st from adns__findlabel_next. Without this, an uninitialised stack value can be used as the first label length.
Depending on the circumstances, an attacker might be able to trick adns into crashing the calling program, leaking aspects of the contents of some of its memory, causing it to allocate lots of memory, or perhaps overrunning a buffer. This is only possible with applications which make non-raw queries for SOA or RP records. (CVE-2017-9103)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-9103

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 253920

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2017_9103.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/24/2025

Updated: 8/24/2025

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 5.5

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-9103

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:adns, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/18/2020

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-9103