CVE-2026-45185
Exim before 4.99.3, in certain GnuTLS configurations, has a remotely reachable use-after-free in the BDAT body parsing path. It is triggered when a client sends a TLS close_notify mid-body during a
02 Description
Exim before 4.99.3, in certain GnuTLS configurations, has a remotely reachable use-after-free in the BDAT body parsing path. It is triggered when a client sends a TLS close_notify mid-body during a
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Assessed, none found. CISA's assessment recorded neither public exploit code nor evidence of exploitation when it was made.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationnoneCISA recorded no public exploit code and no evidence of exploitation.
- AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 1.27% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 69.6% 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
- No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.
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.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2026-05-12 00:00Z5 MO AGO
- Last updated
- 2026-05-14 03:55Z5 MO AGO
- Reserved
- 2026-05-10
- 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-416Use After FreeVariant
- Data version
- 5.2
- Document digest
- eeb52a1e901ec4dc24cd1aabc583d483d137731bb9e0e83018db9ada3dfa78a6
05 Affected products
06 References
- exim.orghttps://exim.org
- code.exim.orghttps://code.exim.org/exim/wiki/wiki/EximSecurity
- exim.orghttps://exim.org/static/doc/security/CVE-2026-45185.txt
- xbow.comhttps://xbow.com/blog/dead-letter-cve-2026-45185-xbow-found-rce-exim
- news.ycombinator.comhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48111748
- www.openwall.comhttps://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/12/4
- exim.orghttps://exim.org/static/doc/security/EXIM-Security-2026-05-01.1/
- www.openwall.comhttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/12/25
07 Fixed in
Debian 12
- exim4 Fixed in 4.96-15+deb12u9
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 13
- exim4 Fixed in 4.98.2-1+deb13u2
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 14
- exim4 Fixed in 4.99.2-2
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- exim4 Fixed in 4.95-4ubuntu2.8
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- exim4 Fixed in 4.97-4ubuntu4.5
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 25.10
- exim4 Fixed in 4.98.2-1ubuntu2.2
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
- exim4 Fixed in 4.99.1-1ubuntu1.2
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS
- exim4 No fix yet
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS
- exim4 No fix yet
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS
- exim4 No fix yet
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS
- exim4 Fixed in 4.93-13ubuntu1.12+esm1Available with Ubuntu Pro (Infra-only): https://ubuntu.com/pro
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
A release or ecosystem missing from this list has no record here. It may be unaffected or not covered by the source. Source notices and licences.