CVE-2019-12420

In Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.3, a message can be crafted in a way to use excessive resources. Upgrading to SA 3.4.3 as soon as possible is the recommended fix but details will not be shared publicly.

Published: 2019-12-12 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-12420 is rated Moderate Risk (57.7/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 7.23%, 94th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

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-2019-12420

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 17.69% 7.23% -10.46%
2 2026-05-31 13.68% 17.69% +4.02%
3 2025-11-21 — 13.68% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-12420

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-12420

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-12420

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2019-12420: 1 source package rows (spamassassin); 15 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 5. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-12420
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-12420 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (spamassassin), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-12420
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-12420
suse high CVE-2019-12420 severity important: SUSE including 20 source package names (perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.4.5-12.10.1, perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.4.5-150600.23.4, …), 102 product×package rows across 47 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (47 product lines)): Fixed 102. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-12420/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-12420 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (spamassassin), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-12420

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-12420

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache spamassassin < 3.4.3 cpe:2.3:a:apache:spamassassin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-12420

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/12/12/2 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bz.apache.org/SpamAssassin/show_bug.cgi?id=7747 Permissions Required
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/5863d6c42fc9595a29566732f12348cde0ca0e41bda91695c62041de%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/5ef362d6da12126fafc81443309ca95d872d1bfd011fe4b2699f0fe9%40%3Cusers.spamassassin.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/64cf76749956dd08f7d5b86ec9f3321f382cfd7fe717ccd1be940c92%40%3Cannounce.spamassassin.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/e3c2367351286b77a74a082e2b66b793cceefa7b6ea9dcd162db4c4b%40%3Cdev.spamassassin.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r2578c486552637bfedbe624940cc60d6463bd90044c887bdebb75e74%40%3Cusers.spamassassin.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r3d32ebf97b1245b8237763444e911c4595d2ad5e34a1641840d8146f%40%3Cusers.spamassassin.apache.org%3E
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/12/msg00019.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Dec/27 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/spamassassin/branches/3.4/build/announcements/3.4.3.txt Mailing List Vendor Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4237-1/
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4237-2/
https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4584 Third Party Advisory
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