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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2020-1946 json

Apache SpamAssassin has an OS Command Injection vulnerability

published 2021-03-25 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-12752

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.9%
EPSS 5.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.5, malicious rule configuration (.cf) files can be configured to run system commands without any output or errors. With this, exploits can be injected in a number of scenarios. In addition to upgrading to SA version 3.4.5, users should only use update channels or 3rd party .cf files from trusted places.

Patch / fix

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.5
  • spamassassin Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.4.5~pre1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-1946

  • spamassassin Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.5
  • spamassassin Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.18.04.5
  • spamassassin Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.4.4-1ubuntu1.1
  • spamassassin Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.1+esm3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-1946

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • spamassassin RHEL 8 3.4.4-4.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:4315

  • spamassassin SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLES 15 SP1-BCL +8 more 3.4.5-12.10.1
  • spamassassin SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 3.4.5-7.14.1
  • spamassassin SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +10 more 3.4.5-44.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1163-1SUSE-SU-2021:1153-1SUSE-SU-2021:1152-1

  • spamassassin openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.4.6-71.3
  • spamassassin openSUSE Leap 15.2 3.4.5-lp152.10.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11395-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0551-1

  • spamassassin AlmaLinux 8 3.4.4-4.el8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2021:4315

  • spamassassin Rocky Linux 8 3.4.4-4.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:4315

  • spamassassin Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +12 more 3.4.5-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2020-1946

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • spamassassin Arch Linux 3.4.5-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1731

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-1946 updated cvss 7.8

spamassassin: Malicious rule configuration files can be configured to run system commands

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 spamassassin
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 spamassassin
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) spamassassin 3.4.4-4.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4315
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 spamassassin
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

5.89% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache SpamAssassin

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.