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CVE-2009-1490· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

Heap-based buffer overflow in Sendmail before 8.13.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) and possibly execut

Heap-based buffer overflow in Sendmail before 8.13.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a long X- header, as demonstrated by an X-Testing header.

MediumCVSS 5.0 · v2.0—Proof of concept Fix available
Published
May 5, 2009
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
12.6% · 96th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

24

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
20 / 40 · 5.0 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
4 / 30 · 12.6%

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Affected systems

VendorProduct
sendmailsendmail

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • sendmail sendmailup to 8.13.1.2 inclusive
  • sendmail sendmail2.6
  • sendmail sendmail2.6.1
  • sendmail sendmail2.6.2
  • sendmail sendmail3.0
  • sendmail sendmail3.0.1
  • sendmail sendmail3.0.2
  • sendmail sendmail3.0.3
  • sendmail sendmail4.1
  • sendmail sendmail4.55
  • sendmail sendmail5
  • sendmail sendmail5.59
  • sendmail sendmail5.61
  • sendmail sendmail5.65
  • sendmail sendmail8.10
  • sendmail sendmail8.10.0
  • sendmail sendmail8.10.1
  • sendmail sendmail8.10.2
  • sendmail sendmail8.11.0
  • sendmail sendmail8.11.1

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12sendmailbefore 8.13.2-08.13.2-0

Same product

sendmail: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2002-1337Buffer overflow in Sendmail 5.79 to 8.12.7 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via certain formatted address fields, related t
    62This week
  • CVE-2003-0161The prescan() function in the address parser (parseaddr.c) in Sendmail before 8.12.9 does not properly handle certain conversions from char
    52Plan
  • CVE-2006-0058Signal handler race condition in Sendmail 8.13.x before 8.13.6 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by triggering timeouts in a
    39Monitor
  • CVE-2009-4565sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which (1) allows man-i
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2006-4434Use-after-free vulnerability in Sendmail before 8.13.8 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a long "header line"
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2002-2261Sendmail 8.9.0 through 8.12.6 allows remote attackers to bypass relaying restrictions enforced by the 'check_relay' function by spoofing a b
    31Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
debian:sendmail8.13.2-0 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

Proof of concept available

A public proof of concept or detection signature exists. Exploit knowledge is out there; don't delay patching.

Evidence

  • Exploit-DB entry ×1

Noroxi does not host or link to exploit code. Metasploit module names and Nuclei template ids are shown (names, not code); Exploit-DB entries and PoC repositories are given as counts only.

Public exploit evidence
SourceKindDate
Exploit-DB entrydos2009-05-27

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

  1. Published
  2. First PoC+21 d
  3. TodaySep 30, 2026+6357 d
EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
P · the service can be disrupted
Attack complexity
Low
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
P

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-119 · Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

CVSS vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records