Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
NONE Integrity impact
NONE Availability impact
LOW Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2023-11-07
Summary
A denial of service vulnerability was identified that exists in Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.2. The vulnerability arises with certain unclosed tags in emails that cause markup to be handled incorrectly leading to scan timeouts. In Apache SpamAssassin, using HTML::Parser, we setup an object and hook into the begin and end tag event handlers In both cases, the "open" event is immediately followed by a "close" event - even if the tag *does not* close in the HTML being parsed. Because of this, we are missing the "text" event to deal with the object normally. This can cause carefully crafted emails that might take more scan time than expected leading to a Denial of Service. The issue is possibly a bug or design decision in HTML::Parser that specifically impacts the way Apache SpamAssassin uses the module with poorly formed html. The exploit has been seen in the wild but not believed to have been purposefully part of a Denial of Service attempt. We are concerned that there may be attempts to abuse the vulnerability in the future.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
- Server Side Include (SSI) Injection
An attacker can use Server Side Include (SSI) Injection to send code to a web application that then gets executed by the web server. Doing so enables the attacker to achieve similar results to Cross Site Scripting, viz., arbitrary code execution and information disclosure, albeit on a more limited scale, since the SSI directives are nowhere near as powerful as a full-fledged scripting language. Nonetheless, the attacker can conveniently gain access to sensitive files, such as password files, and execute shell commands.
- Cross Zone Scripting
An attacker is able to cause a victim to load content into their web-browser that bypasses security zone controls and gain access to increased privileges to execute scripting code or other web objects such as unsigned ActiveX controls or applets. This is a privilege elevation attack targeted at zone-based web-browser security. In a zone-based model, pages belong to one of a set of zones corresponding to the level of privilege assigned to that page. Pages in an untrusted zone would have a lesser level of access to the system and/or be restricted in the types of executable content it was allowed to invoke. In a cross-zone scripting attack, a page that should be assigned to a less privileged zone is granted the privileges of a more trusted zone. This can be accomplished by exploiting bugs in the browser, exploiting incorrect configuration in the zone controls, through a cross-site scripting attack that causes the attackers' content to be treated as coming from a more trusted page, or by leveraging some piece of system functionality that is accessible from both the trusted and less trusted zone. This attack differs from "Restful Privilege Escalation" in that the latter correlates to the inadequate securing of RESTful access methods (such as HTTP DELETE) on the server, while cross-zone scripting attacks the concept of security zones as implemented by a browser.
- Cross Site Scripting through Log Files
An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
- Command Line Execution through SQL Injection
An attacker uses standard SQL injection methods to inject data into the command line for execution. This could be done directly through misuse of directives such as MSSQL_xp_cmdshell or indirectly through injection of data into the database that would be interpreted as shell commands. Sometime later, an unscrupulous backend application (or could be part of the functionality of the same application) fetches the injected data stored in the database and uses this data as command line arguments without performing proper validation. The malicious data escapes that data plane by spawning new commands to be executed on the host.
Nessus
NASL family | Amazon Linux Local Security Checks |
NASL id | AL2_ALAS-2018-1103.NASL |
description | A flaw was found in the way SpamAssassin processes HTML email containing unclosed HTML tags. A carefully crafted mail message could cause SpamAssassin to consume significant resources. If a large number of these messages are sent, a denial of service could occur potentially delaying or preventing the delivery of email.(CVE-2017-15705) A flaw was found in the way a local user on the SpamAssassin server could inject code in the meta rule syntax. This could cause the arbitrary code execution on the server when these rules are being processed.(CVE-2018-11781) |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118834 |
published | 2018-11-09 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118834 |
title | Amazon Linux 2 : spamassassin (ALAS-2018-1103) |
NASL family | Oracle Linux Local Security Checks |
NASL id | ORACLELINUX_ELSA-2018-2916.NASL |
description | From Red Hat Security Advisory 2018:2916 : An update for spamassassin is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section. The SpamAssassin tool provides a way to reduce unsolicited commercial email (spam) from incoming email. Security Fix(es) : * spamassassin: Certain unclosed tags in crafted emails allow for scan timeouts and result in denial of service (CVE-2017-15705) * spamassassin: Local user code injection in the meta rule syntax (CVE-2018-11781) For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118076 |
published | 2018-10-12 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118076 |
title | Oracle Linux 7 : spamassassin (ELSA-2018-2916) |
NASL family | FreeBSD Local Security Checks |
NASL id | FREEBSD_PKG_613193A0C1B411E8AE2D54E1AD3D6335.NASL |
description | the Apache Spamassassin project reports : In Apache SpamAssassin, using HTML::Parser, we setup an object and hook into the begin and end tag event handlers In both cases, the |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 117721 |
published | 2018-09-27 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/117721 |
title | FreeBSD : spamassassin -- multiple vulnerabilities (613193a0-c1b4-11e8-ae2d-54e1ad3d6335) |
NASL family | SuSE Local Security Checks |
NASL id | OPENSUSE-2019-1831.NASL |
description | This update for spamassassin to version 3.4.2 fixes the following issues : Security issues fixed : - CVE-2018-11781: Fixed an issue where a local user could inject code in the meta rule syntax (bsc#1108748). - CVE-2018-11780: Fixed a potential remote code execution vulnerability in the PDFInfo plugin (bsc#1108750). - CVE-2017-15705: Fixed a denial of service through unclosed tags in crafted emails (bsc#1108745). - CVE-2016-1238: Fixed an issue where perl would load modules from the current directory (bsc#1108749). Non-security issues fixed : - Use systemd timers instead of cron (bsc#1115411) - Fixed incompatibility with Net::DNS >= 1.01 (bsc#1107765) - Fixed warning about deprecated regex during sa-update (bsc#1069831) This update was imported from the SUSE:SLE-15:Update update project. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 127739 |
published | 2019-08-12 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/127739 |
title | openSUSE Security Update : spamassassin (openSUSE-2019-1831) |
NASL family | Fedora Local Security Checks |
NASL id | FEDORA_2018-6ED251C42B.NASL |
description | Fixed some small bugs in the previous package: Initial rules now have the correct version, sought channel config is dropped (since it doesn |
last seen | 2020-06-05 |
modified | 2018-10-01 |
plugin id | 117840 |
published | 2018-10-01 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/117840 |
title | Fedora 27 : spamassassin (2018-6ed251c42b) |
NASL family | Debian Local Security Checks |
NASL id | DEBIAN_DLA-1578.NASL |
description | Multiple vulnerabilities were found in Spamassassin, which could lead to Remote Code Execution and Denial of Service attacks under certain circumstances. CVE-2016-1238 Many Perl programs do not properly remove . (period) characters from the end of the includes directory array, which might allow local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse module under the current working directory. CVE-2017-15705 A denial of service vulnerability was identified that exists in Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.2. The vulnerability arises with certain unclosed tags in emails that cause markup to be handled incorrectly leading to scan timeouts. This can cause carefully crafted emails that might take more scan time than expected leading to a Denial of Service. CVE-2018-11780 A potential Remote Code Execution bug exists with the PDFInfo plugin in Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.2. CVE-2018-11781 Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.2 fixes a local user code injection in the meta rule syntax. For Debian 8 |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118938 |
published | 2018-11-14 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118938 |
title | Debian DLA-1578-1 : spamassassin security update |
NASL family | SuSE Local Security Checks |
NASL id | SUSE_SU-2019-2011-1.NASL |
description | This update for spamassassin to version 3.4.2 fixes the following issues : Security issues fixed : CVE-2018-11781: Fixed an issue where a local user could inject code in the meta rule syntax (bsc#1108748). CVE-2018-11780: Fixed a potential remote code execution vulnerability in the PDFInfo plugin (bsc#1108750). CVE-2017-15705: Fixed a denial of service through unclosed tags in crafted emails (bsc#1108745). CVE-2016-1238: Fixed an issue where perl would load modules from the current directory (bsc#1108749). Non-security issues fixed: Use systemd timers instead of cron (bsc#1115411) Fixed incompatibility with Net::DNS >= 1.01 (bsc#1107765) Fixed warning about deprecated regex during sa-update (bsc#1069831) Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 127751 |
published | 2019-08-12 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/127751 |
title | SUSE SLED15 / SLES15 Security Update : spamassassin (SUSE-SU-2019:2011-1) |
NASL family | NewStart CGSL Local Security Checks |
NASL id | NEWSTART_CGSL_NS-SA-2019-0041_SPAMASSASSIN.NASL |
description | The remote NewStart CGSL host, running version CORE 5.04 / MAIN 5.04, has spamassassin packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities: - A flaw was found in the way a local user on the SpamAssassin server could inject code in the meta rule syntax. This could cause the arbitrary code execution on the server when these rules are being processed. (CVE-2018-11781) - A flaw was found in the way SpamAssassin processes HTML email containing unclosed HTML tags. A carefully crafted mail message could cause SpamAssassin to consume significant resources. If a large number of these messages are sent, a denial of service could occur potentially delaying or preventing the delivery of email. (CVE-2017-15705) Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 127217 |
published | 2019-08-12 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/127217 |
title | NewStart CGSL CORE 5.04 / MAIN 5.04 : spamassassin Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2019-0041) |
NASL family | SuSE Local Security Checks |
NASL id | SUSE_SU-2019-1961-1.NASL |
description | This update for spamassassin to version 3.4.2 fixes the following issues : Security issues fixed : CVE-2017-15705: Fixed denial of service via unclosed tags in crafted emails (bsc#1108745). CVE-2018-11781: Fixed a code injection in the meta rule syntax by local users (bsc#1108748). CVE-2018-11780: Fixed a potential remote code execution vulnerability in PDFInfo plugin (bsc#1108750). Non-security issues fixed: Added four new plugins (disabled by default): HashBL, ResourceLimits, FromNameSpoof, Phishing sa-update script: optional support for SHA-256 / SHA-512 been added for better validation of rules GeoIP2 support has been added to RelayCountry and URILocalBL plugins Several new or enhanced configuration options Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 127038 |
published | 2019-07-25 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/127038 |
title | SUSE SLED12 / SLES12 Security Update : spamassassin (SUSE-SU-2019:1961-1) |
NASL family | Scientific Linux Local Security Checks |
NASL id | SL_20181011_SPAMASSASSIN_ON_SL7_X.NASL |
description | Security Fix(es) : - spamassassin: Certain unclosed tags in crafted emails allow for scan timeouts and result in denial of service (CVE-2017-15705) - spamassassin: Local user code injection in the meta rule syntax (CVE-2018-11781) |
last seen | 2020-03-18 |
modified | 2018-10-15 |
plugin id | 118108 |
published | 2018-10-15 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118108 |
title | Scientific Linux Security Update : spamassassin on SL7.x x86_64 (20181011) |
NASL family | Amazon Linux Local Security Checks |
NASL id | ALA_ALAS-2018-1091.NASL |
description | A flaw was found in the way a local user on the SpamAssassin server could inject code in the meta rule syntax. This could cause the arbitrary code execution on the server when these rules are being processed.(CVE-2018-11781) A potential Remote Code Execution bug exists with the PDFInfo plugin in Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.2.(CVE-2018-11780) A flaw was found in the way SpamAssassin processes HTML email containing unclosed HTML tags. A carefully crafted mail message could cause SpamAssassin to consume significant resources. If a large number of these messages are sent, a denial of service could occur potentially delaying or preventing the delivery of email.(CVE-2017-15705) |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118211 |
published | 2018-10-19 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118211 |
title | Amazon Linux AMI : spamassassin (ALAS-2018-1091) |
NASL family | Ubuntu Local Security Checks |
NASL id | UBUNTU_USN-3811-1.NASL |
description | It was discovered that SpamAssassin incorrectly handled certain unclosed tags in emails. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2017-15705) It was discovered that SpamAssassin incorrectly handled the PDFInfo plugin. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2018-11780) It was discovered that SpamAssassin incorrectly handled meta rule syntax. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2018-11781). Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118797 |
published | 2018-11-07 |
reporter | Ubuntu Security Notice (C) 2018-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118797 |
title | Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS : spamassassin vulnerabilities (USN-3811-1) |
NASL family | Gentoo Local Security Checks |
NASL id | GENTOO_GLSA-201812-07.NASL |
description | The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201812-07 (SpamAssassin: Multiple vulnerabilities) Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in SpamAssassin. Please review the referenced CVE identifiers for details. Impact : A remote attacker could execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or cause a Denial of Service condition. Workaround : There is no known workaround at this time. |
last seen | 2020-03-28 |
modified | 2018-12-17 |
plugin id | 119703 |
published | 2018-12-17 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/119703 |
title | GLSA-201812-07 : SpamAssassin: Multiple vulnerabilities |
NASL family | CentOS Local Security Checks |
NASL id | CENTOS_RHSA-2018-2916.NASL |
description | An update for spamassassin is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section. The SpamAssassin tool provides a way to reduce unsolicited commercial email (spam) from incoming email. Security Fix(es) : * spamassassin: Certain unclosed tags in crafted emails allow for scan timeouts and result in denial of service (CVE-2017-15705) * spamassassin: Local user code injection in the meta rule syntax (CVE-2018-11781) For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118117 |
published | 2018-10-16 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118117 |
title | CentOS 7 : spamassassin (CESA-2018:2916) |
NASL family | Red Hat Local Security Checks |
NASL id | REDHAT-RHSA-2018-2916.NASL |
description | An update for spamassassin is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section. The SpamAssassin tool provides a way to reduce unsolicited commercial email (spam) from incoming email. Security Fix(es) : * spamassassin: Certain unclosed tags in crafted emails allow for scan timeouts and result in denial of service (CVE-2017-15705) * spamassassin: Local user code injection in the meta rule syntax (CVE-2018-11781) For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section. |
last seen | 2020-06-01 |
modified | 2020-06-02 |
plugin id | 118077 |
published | 2018-10-12 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/118077 |
title | RHEL 7 : spamassassin (RHSA-2018:2916) |
NASL family | Fedora Local Security Checks |
NASL id | FEDORA_2018-8F0DF2C366.NASL |
description | Fixed some small bugs in the previous package: Initial rules now have the correct version, sought channel config is dropped (since it doesn |
last seen | 2020-06-05 |
modified | 2019-01-03 |
plugin id | 120609 |
published | 2019-01-03 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/120609 |
title | Fedora 29 : spamassassin (2018-8f0df2c366) |
NASL family | Fedora Local Security Checks |
NASL id | FEDORA_2018-46D7A7F63E.NASL |
description | Fixed some small bugs in the previous package: Initial rules now have the correct version, sought channel config is dropped (since it doesn |
last seen | 2020-06-05 |
modified | 2019-01-03 |
plugin id | 120387 |
published | 2019-01-03 |
reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/120387 |
title | Fedora 28 : spamassassin (2018-46d7a7f63e) |
Redhat
advisories | |
rpms | - spamassassin-0:3.4.0-4.el7_5
- spamassassin-debuginfo-0:3.4.0-4.el7_5
|