Sendmail NOCHAR prescan 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 identified as critical has been detected in Sendmail. The impacted element is the function prescan of the component NOCHAR Handler. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2003-0161. In addition, an exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Sendmail (Mail Server Software) (affected version not known). It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function prescan of the component NOCHAR Handler. 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.

The bug was discovered 03/18/2003. The weakness was presented 03/29/2003 by Michal Zalewski and Michal Zalewski (Website). The advisory is shared at ftp.sco.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2003-0161. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details as well as a public exploit are known.

A public exploit has been developed in ANSI C and been published immediately after the advisory. The exploit is available at securityfocus.com. It is declared as proof-of-concept. The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 11 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $5k-$25k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 12385 (RHEL 2.1 : sendmail (RHSA-2003:121)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Red Hat Local Security Checks. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 74174 (Red Hat Sendmail Address Prescan Possible Memory Corruption Vulnerability).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product. Attack attempts may be identified with Snort ID 2183.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (11653), Exploit-DB (24), Tenable (12385), SecurityFocus (BID 7230†) and OSVDB (8294†). See VDB-26 for similar entry. If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

Name

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: 12385
Nessus Name: RHEL 2.1 : sendmail (RHSA-2003:121)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍

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: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍
Exploit Delay Time: 🔍
Snort ID: 2183
Snort Message: SERVER-MAIL Sendmail Content-Transfer-Encoding overflow attempt
Snort Class: 🔍

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

Timelineinfo

03/18/2003 🔍
03/24/2003 +5 days 🔍
03/28/2003 +4 days 🔍
03/29/2003 +0 days 🔍
03/29/2003 +0 days 🔍
04/02/2003 +3 days 🔍
04/09/2004 +373 days 🔍
04/12/2016 +4386 days 🔍
08/24/2025 +3420 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: ftp.sco.com
Researcher: Michal Zalewski, Michal Zalewski
Status: Not defined

CVE: CVE-2003-0161 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2003-0161
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-82133
CERT: 🔍
X-Force: 11653
SecurityFocus: 7230 - Sendmail Address Prescan Memory Corruption Vulnerability
Secunia: 12178
OSVDB: 8294 - Sendmail NOCHAR Control Value prescan Overflow
Vulnerability Center: 1311

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

Entryinfo

Created: 04/12/2016 14:11
Updated: 08/24/2025 01:34
Changes: 04/12/2016 14:11 (66), 10/04/2018 16:24 (11), 07/13/2022 16:01 (4), 07/13/2022 16:07 (1), 06/12/2024 18:19 (16), 01/21/2025 14:39 (5), 08/24/2025 01:34 (5)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216:EFD:103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Interested in the pricing of exploits?

See the underground prices here!