5.3
MEDIUM
CVE-2017-15705
Apache SpamAssassin Denial of Service Vulnerability via Malformed HTML Tags
Description

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.

INFO

Published Date :

Sept. 17, 2018, 2:29 p.m.

Last Modified :

Nov. 7, 2023, 2:40 a.m.

Remotely Exploitable :

Yes !

Impact Score :

1.4

Exploitability Score :

3.9
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2017-15705 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Redhat enterprise_linux_desktop
2 Redhat enterprise_linux_server
3 Redhat enterprise_linux_workstation
4 Redhat enterprise_linux_eus
1 Canonical ubuntu_linux
1 Debian debian_linux
1 Apache spamassassin
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2017-15705 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2017-15705 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    May. 14, 2024

    Action Type Old Value New Value
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 07, 2023

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference Apache Software Foundation https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E [No types assigned]
    Removed Reference Apache Software Foundation https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c@%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Aug. 06, 2019

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-08/msg00002.html [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Dec. 16, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201812-07 [No Types Assigned]
  • Initial Analysis by [email protected]

    Dec. 07, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V2 (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P)
    Added CVSS V3 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
    Changed Reference Type https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2916 No Types Assigned https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2916 Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00016.html No Types Assigned https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00016.html Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105347 No Types Assigned http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105347 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
    Changed Reference Type https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-1/ No Types Assigned https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-1/ Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-2/ No Types Assigned https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-2/ Third Party Advisory
    Changed Reference Type https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c@%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E No Types Assigned https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c@%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
    Added CWE CWE-20
    Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:a:apache:spamassassin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions up to (excluding) 3.4.2
    Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_eus:7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* *cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 14, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-2/ [No Types Assigned]
    Added Reference https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00016.html [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Nov. 07, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://usn.ubuntu.com/3811-1/ [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Oct. 12, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2916 [No Types Assigned]
  • CVE Modified by [email protected]

    Sep. 18, 2018

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105347 [No Types Assigned]
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2017-15705 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2017-15705 weaknesses.

CAPEC-3: Using Leading 'Ghost' Character Sequences to Bypass Input Filters Using Leading 'Ghost' Character Sequences to Bypass Input Filters CAPEC-7: Blind SQL Injection Blind SQL Injection CAPEC-8: Buffer Overflow in an API Call Buffer Overflow in an API Call CAPEC-9: Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities CAPEC-10: Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables CAPEC-13: Subverting Environment Variable Values Subverting Environment Variable Values CAPEC-14: Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow CAPEC-22: Exploiting Trust in Client Exploiting Trust in Client CAPEC-23: File Content Injection File Content Injection CAPEC-24: Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow CAPEC-28: Fuzzing Fuzzing CAPEC-31: Accessing/Intercepting/Modifying HTTP Cookies Accessing/Intercepting/Modifying HTTP Cookies CAPEC-42: MIME Conversion MIME Conversion CAPEC-43: Exploiting Multiple Input Interpretation Layers Exploiting Multiple Input Interpretation Layers CAPEC-45: Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links CAPEC-46: Overflow Variables and Tags Overflow Variables and Tags CAPEC-47: Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion CAPEC-52: Embedding NULL Bytes Embedding NULL Bytes CAPEC-53: Postfix, Null Terminate, and Backslash Postfix, Null Terminate, and Backslash CAPEC-63: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) CAPEC-64: Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-67: String Format Overflow in syslog() String Format Overflow in syslog() CAPEC-71: Using Unicode Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic Using Unicode Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-72: URL Encoding URL Encoding CAPEC-73: User-Controlled Filename User-Controlled Filename CAPEC-78: Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding CAPEC-79: Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding CAPEC-80: Using UTF-8 Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic Using UTF-8 Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-81: Web Server Logs Tampering Web Server Logs Tampering CAPEC-83: XPath Injection XPath Injection CAPEC-85: AJAX Footprinting AJAX Footprinting CAPEC-88: OS Command Injection OS Command Injection CAPEC-101: Server Side Include (SSI) Injection Server Side Include (SSI) Injection CAPEC-104: Cross Zone Scripting Cross Zone Scripting CAPEC-108: Command Line Execution through SQL Injection Command Line Execution through SQL Injection CAPEC-109: Object Relational Mapping Injection Object Relational Mapping Injection CAPEC-110: SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter Tampering SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter Tampering CAPEC-120: Double Encoding Double Encoding CAPEC-135: Format String Injection Format String Injection CAPEC-136: LDAP Injection LDAP Injection CAPEC-153: Input Data Manipulation Input Data Manipulation CAPEC-182: Flash Injection Flash Injection CAPEC-209: XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch CAPEC-230: Serialized Data with Nested Payloads Serialized Data with Nested Payloads CAPEC-231: Oversized Serialized Data Payloads Oversized Serialized Data Payloads CAPEC-250: XML Injection XML Injection CAPEC-261: Fuzzing for garnering other adjacent user/sensitive data Fuzzing for garnering other adjacent user/sensitive data CAPEC-267: Leverage Alternate Encoding Leverage Alternate Encoding CAPEC-473: Signature Spoof Signature Spoof CAPEC-588: DOM-Based XSS DOM-Based XSS CAPEC-664: Server Side Request Forgery Server Side Request Forgery
Exploit Prediction

EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days.

0.91 }} 0.02%

score

0.82918

percentile

CVSS30 - Vulnerability Scoring System
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability