CVE-2023-42119 | Exim dnsdb Out-Of-Bounds Read Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Exim dnsdb Out-Of-Bounds Read Information Disclosure Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows network-adjacent attackers to disclose sensitive information on affected installations of Exim. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the smtp service, which listens on TCP port 25 by default. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in a read past the end of an allocated buffer. An attacker can leverage this in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code in the context of the service account. . Was ZDI-CAN-17643.

Published: 2024-05-03 Last update: 2025-11-03 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-42119 is rated Low Risk (37.4/100): CVSS Low severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.73%). 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-2023-42119

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 2026-01-06 0.95% 0.73% -0.22%
2 2025-12-28 0.78% 0.95% +0.17%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.78% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-42119

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.1 3.0 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-42119

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-42119

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-42119: 1 source package rows (exim); 33 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 6, open 27. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-42119
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-42119 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-2023-42119
gentoo high CVE-2023-42119: 1 GLSA(s) (202402-18), 1 atom(s) (mail-mta/exim); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-42119
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-42119
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-42119 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (exim4), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-42119

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-42119

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
exim exim < 4.96.2 cpe:2.3:a:exim:exim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-42119

cvelogic Threat Intelligence