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CVE DATABASE  /  CVE-2009-4565

CVE-2009-4565

CVSS 7.5 · HIGH

Summary

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.

CVSS 2.0 breakdown

Base score7.5 (HIGH)
VectorAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Attack vectorNETWORK
Attack complexityLOW
ConfidentialityPARTIAL
IntegrityPARTIAL
AvailabilityPARTIAL

Weakness type (CWE)

Affected products

Sendmail sendmail
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References

Data: NIST NVD. NVD last modified 2026-04-23. Always verify against the vendor advisory before acting.

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