CVE-2010-4345 Exim Privilege Escalation

Exploited in the wild High 7.8 Published 14 Dec 2010 Updated 22 Oct 2025

Local attackers can gain privileges by exploiting Exim's ability to execute arbitrary commands via a malicious configuration file directive.

Exploited in the wild: Since 25 Mar 2022
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2010-4345?

CVE-2010-4345 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 14 Dec 2010. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Exim 4.72 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging the ability of the exim user account to specify an alternate configuration file with a directive that contains arbitrary commands, as demonstrated by the spool_directory directive.

Weakness: CWE-77

Which versions are affected by CVE-2010-4345?

It affects 4 products.

Linux distribution packages (24)

`exim` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-doc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-mon` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-sa` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-doc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-mon` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-sa` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-doc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-mon` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-sa` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-doc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-mon` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim-sa` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws	All versions	`0:4.43-1.RHEL4.5.el4_8.3`
`exim` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:4.63-5.el5_6.2`
`exim-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:4.63-5.el5_6.2`
`exim-mon` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:4.63-5.el5_6.2`
`exim-sa` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:4.63-5.el5_6.2`

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Exim Exim, Opensuse Opensuse.

How do I fix CVE-2010-4345?

Apply the vendor's patch. US federal agencies must fix it by 15 Apr 2022.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2010-4345 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2010-4345 in the wild since at least 25 Mar 2022.

Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module and 1 Exploit-DB entry.

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2010-4345, GHSA-qq6c-p3fx-6qcx, RHSA-2011:0153.