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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2017-16943 in the critical feed json

The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a…

published 2017-11-25 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-8112

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
47.1%
EPSS 47.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (use-after-free) via vectors involving BDAT commands.

Patch / fix

  • exim4 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.89-12

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16943

  • exim openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.94.2-4.2
  • exim Package Hub 15 SP2 4.94.2-bp152.6.4.1
  • libspf2 Package Hub 15 SP2 1.2.10-bp152.5.1
  • exim Package Hub 15 SP1 4.94.2-bp151.2.4.1
  • libspf2 Package Hub 15 SP1 1.2.10-bp151.4.1
  • exim openSUSE Leap 15.2 4.94.2-lp152.8.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10746-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0754-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0753-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0677-1

  • exim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +15 more 4.89-r7

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-16943

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

  • exim Arch Linux 4.89.1-1

arch linux advisories AVG-518

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-2017-16943 updated cvss 9.8

exim: use-after-free in receive_msg function via vectors involving BDAT commands

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 exim
    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

47.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/LetUsFsck/PoC-Exploit-Mirror/tree/master/CVE-2017-16944 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugs.exim.org https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2199 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.