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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2019-15846

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2019-09-06
  • Fixed in4.92.2

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Exim before 4.92.2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as root via a trailing backslash.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2019-09-0611:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2019-15846?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2019-15846?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Exim
BranchAffectedFixed in
4.92< 4.92.24.92.2
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.0= 8.0no fix published
9.0= 9.0no fix published
10.0= 10.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • eximSUSE:Package Hub 15 SP1all versions · fixed in 4.94.2-bp151.2.4.1
  • eximopenSUSE:Tumbleweedall versions · fixed in 4.94.2-4.2
  • eximopenSUSE:Leap 15.1all versions · fixed in 4.88-lp151.4.9.1
  • eximopenSUSE:Leap 15.0all versions · fixed in 4.88-lp151.4.9.1
  • eximCleanStartall versions · fixed in 4.92.2-r0
  • eximAlpine:v3.24all versions · fixed in 4.92.2-r0
  • eximAlpine:v3.23all versions · fixed in 4.92.2-r0
  • eximAlpine:v3.22all versions · fixed in 4.92.2-r0

24 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2019-15846 Red Hat Product Security1 known affected

    exim: out-of-bounds access in string_interpret_escape() leading to buffer overflow in the SMTP delivery process

    exim.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update Exim to 4.92.2
  2. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2019-15846 · 1 productWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-02 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
1 repository, unverifiedsynacktiv/Exim-CVE-2019-15846
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.09.8read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.010read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score35.7 %read 2026-11-02
  • PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept1read 2026-11-02
  • OSVaffected packages—

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2019-09-06
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-15846?

Exim before 4.92.2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as root via a trailing backslash.

Is CVE-2019-15846 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2019-15846 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 35.7% on 2026-11-03, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2019-15846?

CVE-2019-15846 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Sources for this record