GHSA-Q2QQ-HMJ6-3WPP

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-05-07 02:59 – Updated: 2026-05-07 02:59
VLAI
Summary
hickory-proto vulnerable to CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n²) name compression
Details

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.

Reporter

Qifan Zhang, Palo Alto Networks

Severity
6.9 (Medium)
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "last_known_affected_version_range": "\u003c= 0.26.0"
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "crates.io",
        "name": "hickory-proto"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0.3.1"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.26.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-407",
      "CWE-770"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "During message encoding, `hickory-proto`\u0027s `BinEncoder` stores pointers to labels that are candidates for name compression in a `Vec\u003c(usize, Vec\u003cu8\u003e)\u003e`. The name compression logic then searches for matches with a linear scan.\n\nA 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.\n\nThis is similar to [CVE-2024-8508](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/unbound/CVE-2024-8508.txt).\n\n### Reporter\n\nQifan Zhang, Palo Alto Networks",
  "id": "GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp",
  "modified": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
  "published": "2026-05-07T02:59:48Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/security/advisories/GHSA-q2qq-hmj6-3wpp"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0119.html"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "hickory-proto vulnerable to CPU exhaustion during message encoding due to O(n\u00b2) name compression"
}


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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

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