CVE Catalog

CVE-2009-4565

High
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

Sendmail before version 8.14.4 improperly handles a null character ('\0') in the Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate. This allows a man-in-the-middle attacker to spoof any SMTP server using a crafted server certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority, and also allows a remote attacker to bypass access restrictions using a crafted client certificate.

Risk Assessment

The organization is exposed to interception and modification of SMTP communication by an attacker, which could lead to theft of credentials or confidential information sent via email.

Recommendation

Immediately update sendmail to version 8.14.4 or later, which includes a fix for this vulnerability.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which (1) allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL-based SMTP servers via a crafted server certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, and (2) allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a crafted client certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS