CVE-2001-0713

Sendmail before 8.12.1 does not properly drop privileges when the -C option is used to load custom configuration files, which allows local users to gain privileges via malformed arguments in the configuration file whose names contain characters with the high bit set, such as (1) macro names that are one character long, (2) a variable setting which is processed by the setoption function, or (3) a Modifiers setting which is processed by the getmodifiers function.

Published: 2001-10-30 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2001-0713 is rated Low Risk (27.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.33%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2001-0713

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.07% 0.33% +0.26%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
3 2023-03-07 0.04%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2001-0713

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2001-0713

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2001-0713

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sendmail sendmail <= 8.12.1 cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2001-0713

cvelogic Threat Intelligence