# CVE-2005-3351: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can bypass spam detection and cause a denial of service in SpamAssassin by sending emails with many recipients.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Nov 2005
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2005-3351, GHSA-m2fg-q836-9pmq, RHSA-2006:0129

## What is CVE-2005-3351?

CVE-2005-3351 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 20 Nov 2005. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

SpamAssassin 3.0.4 allows attackers to bypass spam detection via an e-mail with a large number of recipients ("To" addresses), which triggers a bus error in Perl.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2005-3351?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `spamassassin` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |
| `spamassassin-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws | All versions | 0:3.0.5-3.el4 |

Products: Apache Spamassassin.

## How do I fix CVE-2005-3351?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2005-3351 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-3351 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-1946](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1946/): Apache SpamAssassin has an OS Command Injection vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-11780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-11780/): Code injection in Apache SpamAssassin (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-1930](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1930/): Command injection in Apache SpamAssassin (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2020-1931](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1931/): Command injection in Apache SpamAssassin (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2018-11781](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-11781/): Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.2 fixes a local user code injection in the meta rule syntax. (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2005-3351 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2005-3351 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 20 Nov 2005. 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-2005-3351 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2005-3351/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-3351/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-3351
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2005-3351
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2005-3351

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-3351/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.