CVE-2019-16928

Exploitation

Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-03. Federal remediation due 2022-03-17.

SSVC decision

• ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
• AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
• Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.

CISA publishes the decision points, not a final SSVC decision. The decision also depends on mission and well-being impact, which is a property of your deployment rather than of the vulnerability.

EPSS probability

41.63% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.

EPSS percentile

Equal to or higher than the score of 98.5% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.

NVD base score

9.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.

NVD CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD analysis status

Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.

Red Hat severity

Critical. Red Hat's rating for its own products, not a CVSS rating.

Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.

Published

2019-09-27 20:07Z7 YR AGO

Last updated

2025-10-21 23:45Z1 YR AGO

Reserved

2019-09-27

Assigning CNA

mitre

Record state

PUBLISHED

Severity

Critical (CVSS 9.8)

CNA CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses

• CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteBase
• CWE-131Incorrect Calculation of Buffer SizeBase

Data version

5.1

Document digest

1e6b3bacb8833121690a54a538365f7001b5d80eadb78d77d061b77a79a87c0f

• lists.exim.orghttps://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20190927.032457.c1044d4c.en.htmlx_refsource_MISC
• bugs.exim.orghttps://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2449x_refsource_MISC
• git.exim.orghttps://git.exim.org/exim.git/commit/478effbfd9c3cc5a627fc671d4bf94d13670d65fx_refsource_MISC
• www.openwall.com[oss-security] 20190928 Exim CVE-2019-16928 RCE using a heap-based buffer overflowhttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/1mailing-listx_refsource_MLIST
• www.openwall.com[oss-security] 20190928 Re: Exim CVE-2019-16928 RCE using a heap-based buffer overflowhttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/2mailing-listx_refsource_MLIST
• www.openwall.com[oss-security] 20190928 Re: Exim CVE-2019-16928 RCE using a heap-based buffer overflowhttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/3mailing-listx_refsource_MLIST
• www.debian.orgDSA-4536https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4536vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIAN
• usn.ubuntu.comUSN-4141-1https://usn.ubuntu.com/4141-1/vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTU
• www.openwall.com[oss-security] 20190929 Re: Exim CVE-2019-16928 RCE using a heap-based buffer overflowhttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/09/28/4mailing-listx_refsource_MLIST
• seclists.org20190929 [SECURITY] [DSA 4536-1] exim4 security updatehttps://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Sep/60mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQ
• lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2019-006dfc94cdhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/T3TJW4HPYH3O5HZCWGD6NSHTEBTTAPDC/vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
• lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2019-e080507ba5https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UY6HPRW7MR3KBQ5JFHH6OXM7YCZBJCOB/vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
• lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2019-d778bd4137https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/EED7HM3MFIBAP5OIMJAFJ35JAJABTVSC/vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
• security.gentoo.orgGLSA-202003-47https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-47vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOO
• www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-16928government-resource