Privilege escalation in Exim

CVE-2020-28008

Exim 4 before 4.94.2 allows Execution with Unnecessary Privileges. Because Exim operates as root in the spool directory (owned by a non-root user), an attacker can write to a /var/spool/exim4/input spool header file, in which a crafted recipient address can indirectly lead to command execution.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (32.4th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 32nd percentile — 32.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2020-28008: held from 0.004 to 0.004.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-28008?
CVE-2020-28008 is a high-severity vulnerability in Exim, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2021-05-06.
How severe is CVE-2020-28008?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-28008 known to be exploited?
3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.