usn-2455-1
Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu
Published
2015-01-07 19:26
Modified
2026-02-10 04:40
Summary
bsd-mailx vulnerability
Details

It was discovered that bsd-mailx contained a feature that allowed syntactically valid email addresses to be treated as shell commands. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue with a valid email address to execute arbitrary commands.

This functionality has now been disabled by default, and can be re-enabled with the "expandaddr" configuration option. This update alone does not remove all possibilities of command execution. In environments where scripts use mailx to process arbitrary email addresses, it is recommended to modify them to use a "--" separator before the address to properly handle those that begin with "-". In addition, specifying sendmail options after the "--" separator is no longer supported, existing scripts may need to be modified to use the "-a" option instead.

References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "database_specific": {
        "cves_map": {
          "cves": [
            {
              "id": "CVE-2014-7844",
              "severity": [
                {
                  "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
                  "type": "CVSS_V3"
                },
                {
                  "score": "medium",
                  "type": "Ubuntu"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:14.04:LTS"
        }
      },
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "availability": "No subscription required",
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "bsd-mailx",
            "binary_version": "8.1.2-0.20131005cvs-1ubuntu0.14.04.1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:14.04:LTS",
        "name": "bsd-mailx",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/bsd-mailx@8.1.2-0.20131005cvs-1ubuntu0.14.04.1?arch=source\u0026distro=trusty"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "8.1.2-0.20131005cvs-1ubuntu0.14.04.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1ubuntu1",
        "8.1.2-0.20131005cvs-1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "It was discovered that bsd-mailx contained a feature that allowed\nsyntactically valid email addresses to be treated as shell commands. A\nremote attacker could possibly use this issue with a valid email address to\nexecute arbitrary commands.\n\nThis functionality has now been disabled by default, and can be re-enabled\nwith the \"expandaddr\" configuration option. This update alone does not\nremove all possibilities of command execution. In environments where\nscripts use mailx to process arbitrary email addresses, it is recommended\nto modify them to use a \"--\" separator before the address to properly\nhandle those that begin with \"-\". In addition, specifying sendmail options\nafter the \"--\" separator is no longer supported, existing scripts may need\nto be modified to use the \"-a\" option instead.\n",
  "id": "USN-2455-1",
  "modified": "2026-02-10T04:40:51Z",
  "published": "2015-01-07T19:26:56Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-2455-1"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2014-7844"
    }
  ],
  "related": [],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "summary": "bsd-mailx vulnerability",
  "upstream": [
    "UBUNTU-CVE-2014-7844"
  ]
}



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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

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Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
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  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
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  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.