CVE-2024-8418 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in aardvark-dns. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for aardvark-dns — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Containers/aardvark-dns: tcp query handling flaw in aardvark-dns leading to denial of service
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-8418.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
aardvark-dnsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A flaw was found in Aardvark-dns, which is vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack due to the serial processing of TCP DNS queries. An attacker can exploit this flaw by keeping a TCP connection open indefinitely, causing the server to become unresponsive and resulting in other DNS queries timing out. This issue prevents legitimate users from accessing DNS services, thereby disrupting normal operations and causing service downtime.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | aardvark-dns | ≥ 1.12.0&&< 1.12.2 | 1.12.2cargo update -p aardvark-dns --precise 1.12.2 |
Affected Products
aardvark-dnscontainersResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for aardvark-dns, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update aardvark-dns to 1.12.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-8418 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This vulnerability is classified as moderate severity because it affects the availability of the service rather than compromising data confidentiality or integrity. The CVSS score reflects its impact on system availability, as the DoS attack can lead to significant downtime and service disruption but does not involve…
It is advised to upgrade aardvark-dns to version 1.12.1 or higher.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-8418 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | aardvark-dns-2:1.14.0-1.el9 | RHSA-2025:7094 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-8418 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.