CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2017-16844 — Procmail Procmail security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

Heap-based buffer overflow in the loadbuf function in formisc.c in formail in procmail 3.22 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted e-mail message because of a hardcoded realloc size, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-3618.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2017-11-16
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-119

Affected products

  • procmail / procmail / 3.22

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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