← Vulnerability feed

Vulnerability record · CVE-2003-0540 · published 27 August 2003

CVE-2003-0540: Wietse venema postfix vulnerability

Wietse Venema · Postfix

The address parser code in Postfix 1.1.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (lock) via (1) a malformed envelope address to a local host that would generate a bounce and contains the ".!" string in the MAIL FROM or Errors-To headers, which causes nqmgr to lock up, or (2) via a valid MAIL FROM with a RCPT TO containing a ".!" string, which causes an instance of the SMTP listener to lock up.

5.0 CVSS 2.0 Medium EPSS 21% · top 2.5%
5.0CVSS 2.0 base score
21%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
2Affected product versions listed by NVD
26References
16 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

The address parser code in Postfix 1.1.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (lock) via (1) a malformed envelope address to a local host that would generate a bounce and contains the ".!" string in the MAIL FROM or Errors-To headers, which causes nqmgr to lock up, or (2) via a valid MAIL FROM with a RCPT TO containing a ".!" string, which causes an instance of the SMTP listener to lock up.

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

Affected products

2 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://distro.conectiva.com.br/atualizacoes/?id=a&anuncio=000717
http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2003-August/007693.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106001525130257&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106029188614704&w=2
http://secunia.com/advisories/9433
http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-363 PatchVendor Advisory
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/895508 US Government Resource
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/advisories/engarde_advisory-3517.html
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2003:081
http://www.novell.com/linux/security/advisories/2003_033_postfix.html
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2003-251.html PatchVendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8333
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A544
http://distro.conectiva.com.br/atualizacoes/?id=a&anuncio=000717
http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2003-August/007693.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106001525130257&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106029188614704&w=2
http://secunia.com/advisories/9433
http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-363 PatchVendor Advisory
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/895508 US Government Resource
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/advisories/engarde_advisory-3517.html
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2003:081
http://www.novell.com/linux/security/advisories/2003_033_postfix.html
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2003-251.html PatchVendor Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8333
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A544

Track CVE-2003-0540 inside VULONE

Watch it alongside the ransomware crews, C2 infrastructure and forum chatter that reference it, query it through the API and pull it into your SIEM over TAXII.

Start free Open in platform

Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

10.0CVE-2005-3625Easy software products cups vulnerabilityXpdf, as used in products such as gpdf, kpdf, pdftohtml, poppler, teTeX, CUPS, libextractor, and others, allows attackers to cause a denial of servic…EPSS 3.8%10.0CVE-2004-0882Samba vulnerabilityBuffer overflow in the QFILEPATHINFO request handler in Samba 3.0.x through 3.0.7 may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a TRANSACT…EPSS 14%10.0CVE-2004-0902Mozilla vulnerabilityMultiple heap-based buffer overflows in Mozilla Firefox before the Preview Release, Mozilla before 1.7.3, and Thunderbird before 0.8 allow remote att…EPSS 10%10.0CVE-2004-0903Mozilla vulnerabilityStack-based buffer overflow in the writeGroup function in nsVCardObj.cpp for Mozilla Firefox before the Preview Release, Mozilla before 1.7.3, and Th…EPSS 9.7%10.0CVE-2004-1011Carnegie mellon university cyrus imap server vulnerabilityStack-based buffer overflow in Cyrus IMAP Server 2.2.4 through 2.2.8, with the imapmagicplus option enabled, allows remote attackers to execute arbit…EPSS 5.8%10.0CVE-2004-1012Carnegie mellon university cyrus imap server vulnerabilityThe argument parser of the PARTIAL command in Cyrus IMAP Server 2.2.6 and earlier allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary code via a c…EPSS 6.0%10.0CVE-2004-1013Carnegie mellon university cyrus imap server vulnerabilityThe argument parser of the FETCH command in Cyrus IMAP Server 2.2.x through 2.2.8 allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary code via cer…EPSS 5.8%10.0CVE-2004-0904Mozilla firefox vulnerabilityInteger overflow in the bitmap (BMP) decoder for Mozilla Firefox before the Preview Release, Mozilla before 1.7.3, and Thunderbird before 0.8 allow r…EPSS 8.0%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2003-0540), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.