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CVE-2009-4565· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

sendmail 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

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 2.3% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 83.5% of all records.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: sendmail (Debian:12) 8.14.3-9.1; sendmail (Debian:4.0) 8.13.8-3+etch1; sendmail (Debian:5.0) 8.14.3-5+lenny1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to sendmail (Debian:12) 8.14.3-9.1; sendmail (Debian:4.0) 8.13.8-3+etch1; sendmail (Debian:5.0) 8.14.3-5+lenny1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

sendmail 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-in-the-middle attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL-based SMTP servers via a crafted server certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, and (2) allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a crafted client certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.

HighCVSS 7.5 · v2.0—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jan 4, 2010
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
2.4% · 84th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 2.4%

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  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

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When you'll hear from us

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  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

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 8.14.3 inclusive
  • sendmail sendmail2.6
  • sendmail sendmail2.6.1
  • sendmail sendmail3.0
  • sendmail sendmail3.0.1
  • 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
  • sendmail sendmail8.11.2
  • sendmail sendmail8.11.3
  • sendmail sendmail8.11.4

Package-level exposure

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

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12sendmailbefore 8.14.3-9.18.14.3-9.1
Debian:4.0sendmailbefore 8.13.8-3+etch18.13.8-3+etch1
Debian:5.0sendmailbefore 8.14.3-5+lenny18.14.3-5+lenny1
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::assendmailbefore 0:8.13.1-6.el40:8.13.1-6.el4
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::assendmail-cfbefore 0:8.13.1-6.el40:8.13.1-6.el4
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::assendmail-debuginfobefore 0:8.13.1-6.el40:8.13.1-6.el4
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::assendmail-develbefore 0:8.13.1-6.el40:8.13.1-6.el4
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::assendmail-docbefore 0:8.13.1-6.el40:8.13.1-6.el4
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientsendmail-cfbefore 0:8.13.8-8.el50:8.13.8-8.el5
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientsendmail-docbefore 0:8.13.8-8.el50:8.13.8-8.el5
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationsendmailbefore 0:8.13.8-8.el50:8.13.8-8.el5
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationsendmail-debuginfobefore 0:8.13.8-8.el50:8.13.8-8.el5
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationsendmail-develbefore 0:8.13.8-8.el50:8.13.8-8.el5

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-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
  • CVE-2002-0906Buffer overflow in Sendmail before 8.12.5, when configured to use a custom DNS map to query TXT records, allows remote attackers to cause a
    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:sendmail8.14.3-9.1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)
red hat:sendmail0:8.13.8-8.el5 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:sendmail-cf0:8.13.8-8.el5 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:sendmail-debuginfo0:8.13.8-8.el5 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:sendmail-devel0:8.13.8-8.el5 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstationPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:sendmail-doc0:8.13.8-8.el5 · Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::clientPackage registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

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.

No dated events beyond publication.

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
P · data can be read
Integrity
P · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
P · the service can be disrupted
Attack complexity
Low
Confidentiality impact
P
Integrity impact
P
Availability impact
P

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-310 · Cryptographic Issues

CVSS vector

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

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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

References

Show all references (19 more)

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

All records