Sendmail up to 8.12.8 memory corruption

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.
6.6$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as very critical has been identified in Sendmail. This issue affects some unknown processing. Such manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2003-0161. The attack can be executed remotely. Additionally, an exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Sendmail (Mail Server Software). It has been rated as very critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

The prescan() function in the address parser (parseaddr.c) in Sendmail before 8.12.9 does not properly handle certain conversions from char and int types, which can cause a length check to be disabled when Sendmail misinterprets an input value as a special "NOCHAR" control value, allowing attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via a buffer overflow attack using messages, a different vulnerability than CVE-2002-1337.

The bug was discovered 09/17/2003. The weakness was released 03/29/2003 by Michal Zalewski (Website). The advisory is available at cert.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2003-0161 since 03/24/2003. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. Technical details are unknown but a public exploit is available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/24/2025).

A public exploit has been developed in ANSI C and been published 2 years after the advisory. The exploit is available at packetstormsecurity.nl. It is declared as proof-of-concept. As 0-day the estimated underground price was around $25k-$100k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 14026 (Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : sendmail (MDKSA-2003:042-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Mandriva Local Security Checks and running in the context l. This NASL code is used to determine the existence of the issue:

if (deb_check(release:"2.2", prefix:"sendmail", reference:"8.9.3-26")) flag++;
if (deb_check(release:"3.0", prefix:"libmilter-dev", reference:"8.12.3-6.3")) flag++;
if (deb_check(release:"3.0", prefix:"sendmail", reference:"8.12.3-6.3")) flag++;
if (deb_check(release:"3.0", prefix:"sendmail-doc", reference:"8.12.3-6.3")) flag++;

if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_hole(port:0, extra:deb_report_get());
  else security_hole(0);
  exit(0);
}
The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 74136 (Sendmail Address Prescan Possible Memory Corruption Vulnerability).

Upgrading to version 8.12.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at securityfocus.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability. Attack attempts may be identified with Snort ID 2270. In this case the pattern RCPT TO|3A| is used for detection. Furthermore it is possible to detect and prevent this kind of attack with TippingPoint and the filter 1647.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (13204), Exploit-DB (24), Tenable (14026), SecurityFocus (BID 7230†) and OSVDB (2577†). Entries connected to this vulnerability are available at VDB-31, VDB-288, VDB-20400 and VDB-20403. If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

Name

Version

License

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.3
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 6.6

VulDB Base Score: 7.3
VulDB Temp Score: 6.6
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

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

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Memory corruption
CWE: CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Access: Public
Status: Proof-of-Concept
Programming Language: 🔍
Download: 🔍

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-DayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
TodayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

Nessus ID: 14026
Nessus Name: Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : sendmail (MDKSA-2003:042-1)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍
Nessus Context: 🔍
Nessus Port: 🔍

OpenVAS ID: 53346
OpenVAS Name: Debian Security Advisory DSA 278-1 (sendmail)
OpenVAS File: 🔍
OpenVAS Family: 🔍

Qualys ID: 🔍
Qualys Name: 🔍

Exploit-DB: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

Reaction Time: 🔍
0-Day Time: 🔍
Exposure Time: 🔍
Exploit Delay Time: 🔍

Upgrade: Sendmail 8.12.9
Patch: securityfocus.com

Snort ID: 2270
Snort Message: SMTP RCPT TO sendmail prescan too long addresses overflow
Snort Class: 🔍
Snort Pattern: 🔍

Suricata ID: 2102259
Suricata Class: 🔍
Suricata Message: 🔍

TippingPoint: 🔍

McAfee IPS: 🔍
McAfee IPS Version: 🔍

SourceFire IPS: 🔍
ISS Proventia IPS: 🔍
Fortigate IPS: 🔍

Timelineinfo

03/24/2003 🔍
03/29/2003 +5 days 🔍
03/29/2003 +0 days 🔍
03/29/2003 +0 days 🔍
03/29/2003 +0 days 🔍
04/02/2003 +4 days 🔍
04/02/2003 +0 days 🔍
06/26/2003 +85 days 🔍
09/17/2003 +83 days 🔍
09/22/2003 +5 days 🔍
05/07/2004 +227 days 🔍
07/31/2004 +85 days 🔍
08/24/2025 +7693 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: cert.org
Researcher: Michal Zalewski
Status: Confirmed
Confirmation: 🔍

CVE: CVE-2003-0161 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2003-0161
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-26
CERT: 🔍
X-Force: 13204
SecurityFocus: 7230 - Sendmail Address Prescan Memory Corruption Vulnerability
Secunia: 11780
OSVDB: 2577 - Sendmail prescan() Function Remote Overflow
Vulnerability Center: 1311 - Sendmail < 8.12.9 Allows Arbitrary Code Execution, High

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

Entryinfo

Created: 03/29/2003 01:00
Updated: 08/24/2025 01:27
Changes: 03/29/2003 01:00 (101), 06/25/2019 18:02 (6), 12/08/2024 13:19 (18), 01/21/2025 14:39 (1), 08/24/2025 01:27 (2)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216:9A4:103

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Want to know what is going to be exploited?

We predict KEV entries!