CVE-2019-16928
Exim Out-of-bounds Write Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 17 March 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
Exim 4.92 through 4.92.2 allows remote code execution, a different vulnerability than CVE-2019-15846. There is a heap-based buffer overflow in string_vformat in string.c involving a long EHLO command.
- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 41.64% probability · 99th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Listed 3 March 2022 · due 17 March 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-787
- Affected
- exim/exim · canonical/ubuntu linux · debian/debian linux · fedoraproject/fedora
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 41.6% since 30 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-16928
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/1Exploit, Mailing List, Mitigation, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/2Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/3Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/4Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2449Issue Tracking, Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://git.exim.org/exim.git/commit/478effbfd9c3cc5a627fc671d4bf94d13670d65fPatch
- https://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20190927.032457.c1044d4c.en.htmlVendor Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/EED7HM3MFIBAP5OIMJAFJ35JAJABTVSC/Release Notes
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/T3TJW4HPYH3O5HZCWGD6NSHTEBTTAPDC/Release Notes
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UY6HPRW7MR3KBQ5JFHH6OXM7YCZBJCOB/Release Notes
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Sep/60Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-47Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4141-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4536Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/1Exploit, Mailing List, Mitigation, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/2Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/3Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/4Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2449Issue Tracking, Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://git.exim.org/exim.git/commit/478effbfd9c3cc5a627fc671d4bf94d13670d65fPatch
- https://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20190927.032457.c1044d4c.en.htmlVendor Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/EED7HM3MFIBAP5OIMJAFJ35JAJABTVSC/Release Notes
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/T3TJW4HPYH3O5HZCWGD6NSHTEBTTAPDC/Release Notes
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UY6HPRW7MR3KBQ5JFHH6OXM7YCZBJCOB/Release Notes
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Sep/60Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-47Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4141-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4536Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-16928US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.