Detections
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RHEL 5 : spamassassin (Unpatched Vulnerability)

high Nessus Plugin ID 196386

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat 5 host is affected by multiple vulnerabilities that will not be patched.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has one or more packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities that have been acknowledged by the vendor but will not be patched.

 - spamassassin: command injection via crafted configuration file (CVE-2020-1931)

 - A denial of service vulnerability was identified that exists in Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.2. The vulnerability arises with certain unclosed tags in emails that cause markup to be handled incorrectly leading to scan timeouts. In Apache SpamAssassin, using HTML::Parser, we setup an object and hook into the begin and end tag event handlers In both cases, the open event is immediately followed by a close event - even if the tag *does not* close in the HTML being parsed. Because of this, we are missing the text event to deal with the object normally. This can cause carefully crafted emails that might take more scan time than expected leading to a Denial of Service. The issue is possibly a bug or design decision in HTML::Parser that specifically impacts the way Apache SpamAssassin uses the module with poorly formed html. The exploit has been seen in the wild but not believed to have been purposefully part of a Denial of Service attempt. We are concerned that there may be attempts to abuse the vulnerability in the future. (CVE-2017-15705)

 - Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.2 fixes a local user code injection in the meta rule syntax. (CVE-2018-11781)

 - In Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.3, nefarious CF files can be configured to run system commands without any output or errors. With this, exploits can be injected in a number of scenarios. In addition to upgrading to SA 3.4.3, we recommend that users should only use update channels or 3rd party .cf files from trusted places. (CVE-2018-11805)

 - In Apache SpamAssassin before 3.4.3, a message can be crafted in a way to use excessive resources.
 Upgrading to SA 3.4.3 as soon as possible is the recommended fix but details will not be shared publicly.
 (CVE-2019-12420)

 - A command execution issue was found in Apache SpamAssassin prior to 3.4.3. Carefully crafted nefarious rule configuration (.cf) files can be configured to run system commands similar to CVE-2018-11805. With this bug unpatched, exploits can be injected in a number of scenarios including the same privileges as spamd is run which may be elevated though doing so remotely is difficult. In addition to upgrading to SA 3.4.4, we again recommend that users should only use update channels or 3rd party .cf files from trusted places. If you cannot upgrade, do not use 3rd party rulesets, do not use sa-compile and do not run spamd as an account with elevated privileges. (CVE-2020-1930)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied on the package manager's report that the package is installed.

Solution

The vendor has acknowledged the vulnerabilities but no solution has been provided. Refer to the vendor for remediation guidance.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 196386

File Name: redhat_unpatched-spamassassin-rhel5.nasl

Version: 1.0

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 5/11/2024

Updated: 5/11/2024

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.3

Temporal Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2020-1931

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.1

Temporal Score: 7.1

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:spamassassin

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/17/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-15705, CVE-2018-11781, CVE-2018-11805, CVE-2019-12420, CVE-2020-1930, CVE-2020-1931