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CVE-2009-4565

24
FAUCET Score

CVE-2009-4565 describes a critical vulnerability in Sendmail versions prior to 8.14.4, where improper handling of a null character in an X.509 certificate's Common Name field allows for security bypasses. This flaw enables man-in-the-middle attacks to spoof SSL-based SMTP servers and permits remote attackers to bypass access restrictions using crafted certificates. With a CVSS score of 7.5, this vulnerability is easily exploitable over the network with low attack complexity, potentially leading to unauthorized access and information disclosure. Despite its severity, there is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code, or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 8.14.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:sendmail:sendmail:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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

7.5HIGH

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

Confidentiality Impact
PARTIAL
Integrity Impact
PARTIAL
Availability Impact
PARTIAL
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
LOW
Authentication
NONE
Exploitability Score
10.0
Impact Score
6.4
CvssVersion
2.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
2.37%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
82.1%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0237 is in the 68th percentile among its peer group of 51,553 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 (2)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4Fixed in: sendmail-0:8.13.1-6.el4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: sendmail-0:8.13.8-8.el5
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2009-4565Low

sendmail: incorrect verification of SSL certificate with NUL in name

Dec 30, 2009

References

lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2010-03/msg00004.html
marc.info
secunia.com / advisories/37998
Vendor Advisory
secunia.com / advisories/38314
secunia.com / advisories/38915
secunia.com / advisories/39088
secunia.com / advisories/40109
secunia.com / advisories/43366
security.gentoo.org / glsa/glsa-201206-30.xml
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A10255
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A11822
sunsolve.sun.com / search/document.do
debian.org / security/2010/dsa-1985
redhat.com / support/errata/RHSA-2011-0262.html
securityfocus.com / bid/37543
sendmail.org / releases/8.14.4
Patch
vupen.com / english/advisories/2009/3661
PatchVendor Advisory
vupen.com / english/advisories/2010/0719
vupen.com / english/advisories/2010/1386
vupen.com / english/advisories/2011/0415