The address parser code in Postfix 1.1.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (lock) via (1) a malformed envelope address to a local host that would generate a bounce and contains the ".!" string in the MAIL FROM or Errors-To headers, which causes nqmgr to lock up, or (2) via a valid MAIL FROM with a RCPT TO containing a ".!" string, which causes an instance of the SMTP listener to lock up.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2003-0540 is rated High Exploit Risk (72.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 57.49%, 98th percentile). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +3.09% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22982 | exploit_db | edb | 2003-08-04 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| 22981 | exploit_db | edb | 2003-08-04 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 2025-04-09 | 54.40% | 57.49% | +3.09% |
| 2 | 2025-03-30 | 48.19% | 54.40% | +6.21% |
| 3 | 2025-03-29 | — | 48.19% | — |
Full EPSS history (9 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
10.0 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2003-0540 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (postfix), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2003-0540 |
redhat
|
— | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2003-0540 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| wietse_venema | postfix | 1.0.21 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:1.0.21:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 1.1.11 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:1.1.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 1.1.12 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:1.1.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 1999-09-06 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:1999-09-06:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 1999-12-31 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:1999-12-31:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 2000-02-28 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:2000-02-28:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| wietse_venema | postfix | 2001-11-15 | cpe:2.3:a:wietse_venema:postfix:2001-11-15:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| conectiva | linux | 7.0 | cpe:2.3:o:conectiva:linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| conectiva | linux | 8.0 | cpe:2.3:o:conectiva:linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |