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CVE-2017-16944

71
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-16944 describes a denial-of-service vulnerability in the receive_msg function of the Exim SMTP daemon, versions 4.88 and 4.89. This flaw allows remote attackers to trigger an infinite loop and stack exhaustion via crafted BDAT commands. The vulnerability is rated as high severity (CVSS 7.5) due to its network-based attack vector, low attack complexity, and high impact on availability. While not listed on the KEV catalog, public exploit code exists (EDB-43184), and it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating a high level of awareness.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
4.88CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:exim:exim:4.88:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
4.89CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:exim:exim:4.89:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.5HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
63.32%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.1%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
ExploitDB: EDB-43184 · Nov 27, 2017
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.6332 is in the 98th percentile among its peer group of 51,466 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

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

Remediation

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-16944Important

exim: infinite loop and stack exhaustion in receive_msg function via vectors involving BDAT commands

Nov 24, 2017

References

openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/1
Mailing List
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/2
Mailing List
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2017/11/25/3
Mailing List
bugs.exim.org / show_bug.cgi
ExploitIssue Tracking
lists.exim.org / lurker/message/20171125.034842.d1d75cac.en.html
Mailing List
debian.org / security/2017/dsa-4053
Third Party Advisory
exploit-db.com / exploits/43184
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2021/05/04/7
securitytracker.com / id/1039873
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry