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Vulnerability Intelligence

CVE-2021-25216

Critical

In BIND 9.5.0 -> 9.11.29, 9.12.0 -> 9.16.13, and versions BIND 9.11.3-S1 -> 9.11.29-S1 and 9.16.8-S1 -> 9.16.13-S1 of BIND Supported Preview Edition, as well as release versions 9.17.0 -> 9.17.1 of the BIND 9.17 development branch, BIND servers are vulnerable if they are running…

Published Mar 11, 2022 · Updated Oct 5, 2026 · Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2021-25216, DEBIAN-CVE-2021-25216, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-25216

Key Facts

Patch immediately
  • CVE-2021-25216 is a critical-severity vulnerability (CVSS 9.8 v3.1) affecting Bind (Isc), Active Iq Unified Manager (Netapp), Cloud Backup (Netapp) and 22 more products.
  • It is not listed in any known-exploited vulnerabilities catalog. No public exploit code is known.
  • EPSS estimates a 82% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
  • Fixed versions are available, including Bind 9.16.15-1, Bind 9.16.15-r0, Bind 9.16.20-1.4.
  • Brandefense priority: patch immediately, because it is very likely to be exploited soon.

CVSS v3.1

9.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS (30-day exploit likelihood)

82%

Higher than 99.6% of all scored CVEs

Exploited in the wild

No known

Not in a known-exploited catalog

Public exploit code

None known

Get the full CVE-2021-25216 brief as a PDF

Every affected product and fixed release, exploitation status and a first 24 hours response checklist, emailed within minutes.

Description

In BIND 9.5.0 -> 9.11.29, 9.12.0 -> 9.16.13, and versions BIND 9.11.3-S1 -> 9.11.29-S1 and 9.16.8-S1 -> 9.16.13-S1 of BIND Supported Preview Edition, as well as release versions 9.17.0 -> 9.17.1 of the BIND 9.17 development branch, BIND servers are vulnerable if they are running an affected version and are configured to use GSS-TSIG features. In a configuration which uses BIND's default settings the vulnerable code path is not exposed, but a server can be rendered vulnerable by explicitly setting values for the tkey-gssapi-keytab or tkey-gssapi-credential configuration options. Although the default configuration is not vulnerable, GSS-TSIG is frequently used in networks where BIND is integrated with Samba, as well as in mixed-server environments that combine BIND servers with Active Directory domain controllers. For servers that meet these conditions, the ISC SPNEGO implementation is vulnerable to various attacks, depending on the CPU architecture for which BIND was built: For named binaries compiled for 64-bit platforms, this flaw can be used to trigger a buffer over-read, leading to a server crash. For named binaries compiled for 32-bit platforms, this flaw can be used to trigger a server crash due to a buffer overflow and possibly also to achieve remote code execution. We have determined that standard SPNEGO implementations are available in the MIT and Heimdal Kerberos libraries, which support a broad range of operating systems, rendering the ISC implementation unnecessary and obsolete. Therefore, to reduce the attack surface for BIND users, we will be removing the ISC SPNEGO implementation in the April releases of BIND 9.11 and 9.16 (it had already been dropped from BIND 9.17). We would not normally remove something from a stable ESV (Extended Support Version) of BIND, but since system libraries can replace the ISC SPNEGO implementation, we have made an exception in this case for reasons of stability and security.

Affected Products

155 affected entries in total
ProductAffected versionsFixed in
BindIsc9.10.5-s1, 9.10.7-s1, 9.11.12-s1, 9.11.21-s1, 9.11.27-s1, 9.11.29-s1, 9.11.3-s1, 9.11.5-s39.11.31
Active Iq Unified ManagerNetappSee advisoryn/a
Cloud BackupNetappSee advisoryn/a
Sinec Infrastructure Network ServicesSiemensSee advisory1.0.1.1
Debian LinuxDebian10.0, 9.0n/a
20 more affected products in the full CVE brief

Patched Releases

Bind

9.16.15-1, 9.16.15-r0, 9.16.20-1.4, 9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1, 9.11.31

bind-chrootenv

9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1

bind-devel

9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1

bind-doc

9.16.20-1.4, 9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1

bind-libs

9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1

bind-libs-32bit

9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1

bind-utils

9.16.20-1.4, 9.9.6P1-0.51.26.1, 9.9.9P1-63.25.1

BIND9

1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u9, 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-8ubuntu1.19, 1:9.11.3+dfsg-1ubuntu1.15, 1:9.11.5.P4+dfsg-5.1+deb10u5, 1:9.16.1-0ubuntu2.8, 1:9.16.15-1, 1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

bind9-doc

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

bind9-host

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

bind9utils

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

bindutils

9.16.15-1.ph1, 9.16.15-1.ph2, 9.16.15-1.ph3, 9.16.15-1.ph4

dnsutils

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

host

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libbind-dev

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libbind9-90

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libdns100

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libisc95

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libisccc90

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

libisccfg90

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

liblwres90

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

lwresd

1:9.9.5.dfsg-3ubuntu0.19+esm13

python3-bind

9.16.20-1.4

rootio-bind9

1:9.16.15-1

Sinec Infrastructure Network Services

1.0.1.1

Timeline

  1. Publicly disclosed

    Mar 11, 2022

  2. Last updated

    Oct 5, 2026

Weakness Type

  • CWE-125 Out-of-bounds Read
  • CWE-131 Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size

References

15 more references in the full CVE brief

FAQ

Common Questions.

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