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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2019-13917 json

Exim 4.85 through 4.92 (fixed in 4.92.1) allows remote code execution as root in some unusual configurations that use the ${sort } expansio…

published 2019-07-25 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-5187

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
8.6%
EPSS 8.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 95%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Exim 4.85 through 4.92 (fixed in 4.92.1) allows remote code execution as root in some unusual configurations that use the ${sort } expansion for items that can be controlled by an attacker (e.g., $local_part or $domain).

Patch / fix

  • exim4 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.92-10

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-13917

  • exim4 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.86.2-2ubuntu2.4
  • exim4 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.90.1-1ubuntu1.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-13917

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

  • exim openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.94.2-4.2
  • exim Package Hub 15 SP1 4.94.2-bp151.2.4.1
  • libspf2 Package Hub 15 SP1 1.2.10-bp151.4.1

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

  • exim Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +13 more 4.92.1-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-13917

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 4.92.1-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1011

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-2019-13917 updated cvss 8.1

exim: ${sort} in configuration leads to privilege escalation

  • 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

8.62% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 95% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

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

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-19 Data Processing Errors

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.