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CVE-2003-0161

63
FAUCET Score

CVE-2003-0161 is a critical buffer overflow vulnerability in the prescan() function of Sendmail versions prior to 8.12.9, also affecting Compaq, HP, and Sun systems. This flaw allows remote attackers to disable length checks by misinterpreting input as a special control value, leading to denial of service and potentially arbitrary code execution. With a CVSS score of 10.0, it is easily exploitable over the network without authentication, resulting in complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. While not on the KEV catalog, exploit code for remote command execution and memory corruption is publicly available on ExploitDB, and the vulnerability has garnered significant community discussion.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
2.6CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:2.6.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:2.6.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
3.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
3.0.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:3.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 2.0

10.0HIGH

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
LOW
Authentication
NONE
Exploitability Score
10.0
Impact Score
10.0
CvssVersion
2.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
38.19%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
98.4%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
ExploitDB: EDB-24 · Apr 30, 2003
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.3819 is in the 97th percentile among its peer group of 51,485 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (11)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Advanced Server) version 2.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 6.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 7.0
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 7.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 7.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 7.3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 8.0
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux 9
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2003-0161Critical

security flaw

Mar 29, 2003

References

ftp.caldera.com / pub/security/OpenLinux/CSSA-2003-016.0.txt
ftp.freebsd.org / pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-03:07.sendmail.asc
ftp.sco.com / pub/updates/OpenServer/SCOSA-2004.11/SCOSA-2004.11.txt
patches.sgi.com / support/free/security/advisories/20030401-01-P
distro.conectiva.com.br / atualizacoes
lists.apple.com / mhonarc/security-announce/msg00028.html
lists.grok.org.uk / pipermail/full-disclosure/2003-March/004295.html
marc.info
marc.info
marc.info
sunsolve.sun.com / search/document.do
sunsolve.sun.com / search/document.do
sunsolve.sun.com / search/document.do
cert.org / advisories/CA-2003-12.html
PatchThird Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
debian.org / security/2003/dsa-278
debian.org / security/2003/dsa-290
gentoo.org / security/en/glsa/glsa-200303-27.xml
kb.cert.org / vuls/id/897604
US Government Resource
redhat.com / support/errata/RHSA-2003-120.html
PatchVendor Advisory
redhat.com / support/errata/RHSA-2003-121.html
securityfocus.com / archive/1/316961/30/25250/threaded
securityfocus.com / archive/1/317135/30/25220/threaded
securityfocus.com / archive/1/321997
securityfocus.com / bid/7230
PatchVendor Advisory