Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2022-38177 is a denial-of-service flaw in ISC BIND 9. A remote attacker could send spoofed DNS responses with malformed ECDSA DNSSEC signatures, causing small memory leaks that may eventually make named run out of memory and crash.
Executive priority
Treat as high priority where BIND resolvers support critical business services. The impact is service availability: a DNS resolver crash can disrupt application access, authentication flows, email routing, and customer-facing systems that depend on DNS resolution.
Technical view
The issue is a CWE-401 memory leak in BIND 9 ECDSA DNSSEC verification. Network attackers need no privileges or user interaction. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.5 because successful abuse affects availability, not confidentiality or integrity, by exhausting memory over time.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most relevant for organizations running affected ISC BIND 9 resolver services, especially DNSSEC-validating resolvers. The source bundle names BIND 9.8 through versions before 9.16.33, 9.9-S through 9.11.37-S1, and 9.16-S before 9.16.33-S1.
Exploitation context
The CVE record describes remote spoofed responses with malformed ECDSA signatures. The bundle does not cite CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation, so exploitation should be treated as plausible but not proven from these sources.
Researcher notes
The provided sources support a remote availability issue through malformed ECDSA DNSSEC verification inputs and memory leakage. They do not provide evidence of data compromise, privilege escalation, or active exploitation. Avoid assuming broader BIND versions beyond the bundle without checking vendor advisories.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade ISC BIND to a vendor-fixed version or distribution security update.
- Prioritize internet-facing or high-dependency recursive DNS resolvers.
- Check Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, NetApp, or ISC guidance for package-specific fixes.
- Monitor named memory use and restart behavior until remediation is complete.
Validation and detection
- Inventory DNS servers and confirm BIND 9 versions in use.
- Identify resolvers performing DNSSEC validation with ECDSA signature handling exposure.
- Confirm patched package versions against ISC or operating system advisories.
- Review logs and monitoring for unexplained named memory growth or crashes.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-401: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2022-38177 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://kb.isc.org/docs/cve-2022-38177CVE reference
- DSA-5235CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-ef038365deCVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-8268735e06CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-b197d64471CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- [debian-lts-announce] 20221005 [SECURITY] [DLA 3138-1] bind9 security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
- GLSA-202210-25CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221228-0010/CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.