CVE-2003-0540 Denial of service in n/a
Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in Postfix by sending malformed email addresses containing specific strings, locking up the queue manager or SMTP listener.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2003-0540?
CVE-2003-0540 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Conectiva Linux, published on 5 Aug 2003. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The address parser code in Postfix 1.1.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (lock) via (1) a malformed envelope address to a local host that would generate a bounce and contains the ".!" string in the MAIL FROM or Errors-To headers, which causes nqmgr to lock up, or (2) via a valid MAIL FROM with a RCPT TO containing a ".!" string, which causes an instance of the SMTP listener to lock up.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2003-0540?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Conectiva Linux, Wietse Venema Postfix.
How do I fix CVE-2003-0540?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2003-0540 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2003-0540 exists.
Public exploit code: 2 Exploit-DB entries.
Other vulnerabilities in Conectiva Linux
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2003-0540, GHSA-cgrr-3rc7-3h4r.