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Ubuntu 14.04 LTS : bsd-mailx vulnerability (USN-2455-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 80413

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Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing a security update.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-2455-1 advisory.

 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.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected bsd-mailx package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-2455-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 80413

File Name: ubuntu_USN-2455-1.nasl

Version: 1.15

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 1/8/2015

Updated: 8/28/2024

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2014-7844

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:bsd-mailx

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/7/2015

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/14/2020

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2014-7844

BID: 71701

USN: 2455-1