sendmail — security advisory
sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which (1) allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL-based SMTP servers via a crafted server certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, and (2) allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a crafted client certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.
- Products
- sendmail
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 8.14.3-9.1
- CVEs
- CVE-2009-4565
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 22:42 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which (1) allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL-based SMTP servers via a crafted server certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, and (2) allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a crafted client certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565
sendmail
Fixed versions: 8.14.3-9.1
sendmail
Fixed versions: 8.14.3-9.1
sendmail
Fixed versions: 8.14.3-9.1
Complete source record
{
"id": "943f0a409d095bca83c97ccc18ec4cd7fa32ce03b6d0c94cc2e6b284f606f33a",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565",
"summary": "sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which (1) allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL-based SMTP servers via a crafted server certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, and (2) allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions via a crafted client certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "sendmail",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "8.14.3-9.1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "sendmail",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "8.14.3-9.1",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "sendmail",
"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "8.14.3-9.1",
"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "unknown",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565"
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "8.14.3-9.1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "sendmail",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/sendmail?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "medium"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "8.14.3-9.1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "sendmail",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/sendmail?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "medium"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "8.14.3-9.1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "sendmail",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/sendmail?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4565.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "medium"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-23T17:47:28.637801367Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2009-4565"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-4565"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2009-4565",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": null
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 417131,
"published_at": "2010-01-04T21:30:00.64+00:00"
}