# CVE-1999-1109: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in Sendmail by sending ETRN commands and disconnecting, forcing the server to continue processing.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 Mar 2002
- **Updated:** 1 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jw39-vxm9-j3xr

## What is CVE-1999-1109?

CVE-1999-1109 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Mar 2002. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Sendmail before 8.10.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending a series of ETRN commands then disconnecting from the server, while Sendmail continues to process the commands after the connection has been terminated.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-1999-1109?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Sendmail Sendmail.

## How do I fix CVE-1999-1109?

No fix has been published for CVE-1999-1109 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-1999-1109 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-1999-1109 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Eric Allman Sendmail 8.9.1/8.9.3 - ETRN Denial of Service (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2007-2246](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-2246/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2006-0058](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-0058/): Race condition in n/a (high 7.6)
- [CVE-2009-4565](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4565/): Security feature bypass in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2002-2261](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-2261/): Security feature bypass in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-1999-1592](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1592/): Other in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-1999-1109 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-1999-1109 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Mar 2002. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-1999-1109 exists.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1109/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1109/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-1999-1109
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-1999-1109
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-1999-1109

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1109/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.