# CVE-2019-1844: Cisco Email Security Appliance Filter Bypass Vulnerability

> An unauthenticated remote attacker can bypass email filtering mechanisms to deliver malicious content to users by sending specific file types.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 May 2019
- **Updated:** 19 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-gpfw-gg76-25px

## What is CVE-2019-1844?

CVE-2019-1844 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Email Security Appliance, published on 3 May 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in certain attachment detection mechanisms of the Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass the filtering functionality of an affected device. The vulnerability is due to improper detection of certain content sent to an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending certain file types without Content-Disposition information to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to send messages that contain malicious content to users.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-1844?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Email Security Appliance.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-1844?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-1844 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-1844 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-1844 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Email Security Appliance

- [CVE-2022-20798](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20798/): Cisco Email Security Appliance and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager External Authentication Bypass Vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2015-6291](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6291/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-20664](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20664/): Cisco Email Security Appliance and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability (high 7.7)
- [CVE-2022-20960](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20960/): Denial of service in Cisco Secure Email (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2018-0419](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0419/): Security feature bypass in Email Security Appliance (ESA) (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-1844 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-1844 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Email Security Appliance, published on 3 May 2019. 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-2019-1844 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Email Security Appliance. 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-2019-1844/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1844/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-1844
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-1844
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-1844

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1844/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.