CVE-2017-16944
The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service…
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 63.4%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.8% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
The receive_msg function in receive.c in the SMTP daemon in Exim 4.88 and 4.89 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and stack exhaustion) via vectors involving BDAT commands and an improper check for a '.' character signifying the end of the content, related to the bdat_getc function.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits2
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Exim 4.89 - 'BDAT' Denial of Service (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 43184dos, multiplepublished 27 Nov 2017Verified
References tagged exploit1 reference
- 43184 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 7 years later
· 7 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.0 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 63.4% · top 0.8% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
9
- https://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20171125.034842.d1d75cac.en.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2201 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/1 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- 1039873 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/2 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- DSA-4053 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIANx_transferred
- 43184 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20210504 21Nails: Multiple vulnerabilities in Exim (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2017-8113 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2017-16944)Record last updated .