# CVE-2003-0688: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash Sendmail via invalid DNS responses when the enhdnsbl feature is enabled, causing denial of service.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 3 Sep 2003
- **Updated:** 8 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2003-0688, GHSA-g82v-vwh4-vpjc

## What is CVE-2003-0688?

CVE-2003-0688 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 3 Sep 2003. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The DNS map code in Sendmail 8.12.8 and earlier, when using the "enhdnsbl" feature, does not properly initialize certain data structures, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (process crash) via an invalid DNS response that causes Sendmail to free incorrect data.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2003-0688?

It affects 6 products.


Products: Compaq Tru64, Freebsd Freebsd, Openbsd Openbsd, Redhat Sendmail, Sendmail Sendmail, Sgi Irix.

## How do I fix CVE-2003-0688?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2003-0688 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2003-0688 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Freebsd Freebsd

- [CVE-2003-0196](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0196/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2003-0161](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0161/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2002-2002](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-2002/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2003-0724](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0724/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2002-1202](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1202/): Information disclosure in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2003-0688 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2003-0688 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 3 Sep 2003. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2003-0688 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Freebsd Freebsd. 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-2003-0688/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0688/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2003-0688
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2003-0688
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2003-0688

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0688/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.