CVE-2010-4345

Exp

Exim 4.72 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging the ability of the exim user account to specify an alternate configuration file with a directive that contains arbitrary commands, as demonstrated by the spool_directory directive.

Published: 2010-12-14 Last update: 2026-04-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2010-4345 is rated Critical Active Threat (87.8/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 6.51%, 91th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-03-25) affecting Exim / Exim. a weakness (CWE-77) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

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

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2010-4345

Name: Exim Privilege Escalation Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-03-25

Action due: 2022-04-15

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2010-4345

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
16925 exploit_db edb 2010-12-16 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2010-4345

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 2026-05-07 6.86% 6.51% -0.35%
2 2026-04-22 6.00% 6.86% +0.85%
3 2026-04-19 — 6.00% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2010-4345

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2010-4345

OS Trackers for CVE-2010-4345

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2010-4345 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (exim4), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2010-4345
gentoo high CVE-2010-4345: 1 GLSA(s) (201401-32), 1 atom(s) (mail-mta/exim); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2010-4345
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-4345
ubuntu medium CVE-2010-4345 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (exim4), 6 status rows across 6 suites (dapper, hardy, karmic, lucid, maverick, upstream): released 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2010-4345

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2010-4345

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
exim exim <= 4.72 cpe:2.3:a:exim:exim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse opensuse 11.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:11.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse opensuse 11.2 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:11.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse opensuse 11.3 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:11.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 5.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 6.06 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:6.06:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 8.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:8.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 9.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:9.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 10.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:10.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 10.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:10.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2010-4345

URL Tags
http://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1044 Issue Tracking Patch
http://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20101209.172233.abcba158.en.html Mailing List Patch
http://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20101210.164935.385e04d0.en.html Mailing List
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-12/msg00003.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/12/10/1 Mailing List
http://secunia.com/advisories/42576 Broken Link Vendor Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/42930 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/43128 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/43243 Broken Link
http://www.cpanel.net/2010/12/critical-exim-security-update.html Broken Link
http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2131 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2154 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.exim.org/lurker/message/20101207.215955.bb32d4f2.en.html Mailing List Vendor Advisory
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/758489 Third Party Advisory US Government Resource
http://www.metasploit.com/modules/exploit/unix/smtp/exim4_string_format Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/05/04/7 Mailing List
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0153.html Broken Link
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/515172/100/0/threaded Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/45341 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1024859 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/11/exim_code_execution_peril/ Press/Media Coverage Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1060-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/3171 Broken Link Vendor Advisory
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/3204 Broken Link Vendor Advisory
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0135 Broken Link
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0245 Broken Link
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0364 Broken Link
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=662012 Issue Tracking Patch
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2010-4345 US Government Resource
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