Debian DSA-4041-1 : procmail - security update

critical Nessus Plugin ID 104685

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Synopsis

The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update.

Description

Jakub Wilk reported a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in procmail's formail utility when processing specially crafted email headers. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause formail to crash, resulting in a denial of service or data loss.

Solution

Upgrade the procmail packages.

For the oldstable distribution (jessie), this problem has been fixed in version 3.22-24+deb8u1.

For the stable distribution (stretch), this problem has been fixed in version 3.22-25+deb9u1.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 104685

File Name: debian_DSA-4041.nasl

Version: 3.8

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Debian Local Security Checks

Published: 11/20/2017

Updated: 11/13/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 7.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-16844

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 8.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:9.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:8.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:procmail

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/Debian/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/19/2017

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-16844

DSA: 4041

Detections

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