Exim
CVE-2017-16944
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Loop termination conditions
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. EPSS exploitation probability: 76.03%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | This vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network. Successful exploitation could compromise the high-severity affected system. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and stack exhaustion) via vectors involving BDAT. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and EPSS exploitation probability 76.0%.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Affects your stack
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-835. The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and stack exhaustion) via vectors involving BDAT commands and an improper check for a '.' character signifying the end of the content, related to the bdat_getc function. Affected products include: Exim, Debian Debian Linux.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and stack exhaustion) via vectors involving BDAT commands and an improper check for a '.' character signifying the end of the content, related to the bdat_getc function.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to execute arbitr
Exim before 4.86.2, when installed setuid root, allows local users to gain privileges via the perl_startup argument. Rat
Exim mail server version 4.98 before 4.98.1 contains a remote SQL injection vulnerability when SQLite hints and ETRN ser
A flaw was found in Exim versions 4.87 to 4.91 (inclusive). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is re
Heap-based buffer overflow in the dkim_exim_query_dns_txt function in dkim.c in Exim 4.70 through 4.80, when DKIM suppor
Exim before 4.95 has a heap-based buffer overflow for the alias list in host_name_lookup in host.c when sender_host_name
Exim 4.92 through 4.92.2 allows remote code execution, a different vulnerability than CVE-2019-15846. Rated critical sev
An issue was discovered in the base64d function in the SMTP listener in Exim before 4.90.1. Rated critical severity (CVS
A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in the packaging of exim in openSUSE Factory allows local attacke
Exim before 4.96 has an invalid free in pam_converse in auths/call_pam.c because store_free is not used after store_mall
Exim through 4.93 has an out-of-bounds read in the SPA authenticator that could result in SPA/NTLM authentication bypass
Exim 4 before 4.94.2 has Execution with Unnecessary Privileges. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.3). Public exploit code av
GitHub PoC