A buffer overflow flaw was discovered in Exim's internal string_vformat() function. A remote attacker could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code on the mail server running Exim.
(CVE-2010-4344)

Note: successful exploitation would allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code as root on a Scientific Linux 4 or 5 system that is running the Exim mail server. An exploit for this issue is known to exist.

After installing this update, the Exim daemon will be restarted automatically.

A heap overflow vulnerability exists in the version of exim installed on the remote host. 

By sending a specially crafted message to the server, a remote attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on the server with the privilege of the exim server. A separate vulnerability that Nessus didn't test for, CVE-2010-4345, is often used to elevate the exim user to root access. 

Note that Nessus checked for this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet and checking the response, without crashing the service. 

All 4.6x versions 4.69-9 and below are known to be affected, and others may be as well.

remote attackers could trick exim into running arbitrary code (CVE-2010-4344). A privilege escalation flaw allowed attackers to gain root access (CVE-2010-4345).

Sergey Kononenko and Eugene Bujak discovered that Exim did not correctly truncate string expansions. A remote attacker could send specially crafted email traffic to run arbitrary code as the Exim user, which could also lead to root privileges.

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.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201401-32 (Exim: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Exim. Please review the       CVE identifiers referenced below for details.
  Impact :

    A remote attacker could possibly execute arbitrary code with root       privileges, or cause a Denial of Service condition.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

Several vulnerabilities have been found in exim4 that allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code as root user. Exploits for these issues have been seen in the wild.

This update fixes a memory corruption issue that allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code as the Debian-exim user (CVE-2010-4344 ).

A fix for an additional issue that allows the Debian-exim user to obtain root privileges (CVE-2010-4345 ) is currently being checked for compatibility issues. It is not yet included in this upgrade but will released soon in an update to this advisory.

Updated exim packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7, 5.3, and 5.4 Extended Update Support.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having critical security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

Exim is a mail transport agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge for use on Unix systems connected to the Internet.

A buffer overflow flaw was discovered in Exim's internal string_vformat() function. A remote attacker could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code on the mail server running Exim.
(CVE-2010-4344)

Note: successful exploitation would allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code as root on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 or 5 system that is running the Exim mail server. An exploit for this issue is known to exist.

For additional information regarding this flaw, along with mitigation advice, please see the Knowledge Base article linked to in the References section of this advisory.

Users of Exim are advised to update to these erratum packages which contain a backported patch to correct this issue. After installing this update, the Exim daemon will be restarted automatically.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ELSA-2010-0970 advisory.

    [4.63-3.el5_5.2]
    - fix buffer overflow in string_format (CVE-2010-4344, #662019)

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

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

The remote host is running Exim, a message transfer agent.  

Versions of Exim earlier than 4.70 are potentially affected by a heap overflow vulnerability.  By sending a specially crafted message to the server, a remote attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on the server subject to the privileges of the user running the affected application.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
60919	Scientific Linux Security Update : exim on SL4.x, SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	3/28/2022	high
51179	Exim string_format Function Remote Overflow	Nessus	SMTP problems	12/15/2010	4/25/2023	high
53715	openSUSE Security Update : exim (openSUSE-SU-2010:1052-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/5/2011	3/28/2022	high
53657	openSUSE Security Update : exim (openSUSE-SU-2010:1052-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/5/2011	3/28/2022	high
51136	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 8.04 LTS / 9.10 : exim4 vulnerability (USN-1032-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	12/12/2010	3/28/2022	high
72159	GLSA-201401-32 : Exim: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	1/28/2014	3/28/2022	high
51128	Debian DSA-2131-1 : exim4 - arbitrary code execution	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	12/12/2010	3/28/2022	high
51133	RHEL 4 / 5 : exim (RHSA-2010:0970)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	12/12/2010	4/25/2023	high
51780	CentOS 4 : exim (CESA-2010:0970)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	1/28/2011	4/25/2023	high
68160	Oracle Linux 5 : exim (ELSA-2010-0970)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	10/22/2024	critical
75481	openSUSE Security Update : exim (openSUSE-SU-2010:1052-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	6/13/2014	3/28/2022	high
5910	Exim < 4.70 string_format Function Remote Overflow	Nessus Network Monitor	SMTP Servers	12/15/2010	3/6/2019	high

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