CVE-2017-13704

Publication date 2 October 2017

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

In dnsmasq before 2.78, if the DNS packet size does not match the expected size, the size parameter in a memset call gets a negative value. As it is an unsigned value, memset ends up writing up to 0xffffffff zero's (0xffffffffffffffff in 64 bit platforms), making dnsmasq crash.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
dnsmasq	17.04 zesty	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not affected

Notes

mdeslaur

regression introduced in 2.77

Severity score breakdown

CVSS version: CVSS v3.0

Base score 7.5 · High

Base metrics

Parameter	Value
Attack vector	Network
Attack complexity	Low
Privileges required	None
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality impact	None
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	High

Scores

Parameter	Value
Base score	7.5 · High
Exploitability score	-
Impact score	-

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