LinuxOperating system · Redhat
CVE-1999-1542
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedRPMMail before 1.4 allows remote attackers to execute commands via an e-mail message with shell metacharacters in the "MAIL FROM" command.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceRPMMail before version 1.4 contains a command injection vulnerability in its SMTP server implementation. The MAIL FROM command handler fails to properly sanitize input, allowing attackers to embed shell metacharacters that get interpreted by the underlying system shell, enabling arbitrary command execution with the privileges of the email service.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
LinuxOperating system
= 6.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if RPMMail is installedQuery the system package manager for RPMMail or search for the RPMMail binary in common locations such as /usr/sbin/rpmmail or /usr/local/sbin/rpmmailAffected if RPMMail is found on the system and is running as an SMTP service
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Determine the installed RPMMail versionRun 'rpm -q rpmmail' or use 'rpm -qi rpmmail' to retrieve package version informationAffected if The installed version is below 1.4 (for Red Hat Linux 6.0) or the version cannot be determined but RPMMail is present
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Verify the SMTP service is running and exposedCheck for listening SMTP daemon processes using 'ps aux | grep -i rpm' or 'netstat -tlnp | grep 25' to see if port 25 is openAffected if The SMTP service is actively running and accepting connections on port 25 or another SMTP port
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Test the MAIL FROM handler for command injectionConnect to the SMTP service via telnet or netcat on the listening port and issue a MAIL FROM command containing shell metacharacters such as 'MAIL FROM: $(whoami)' or 'MAIL FROM: `id`'Affected if The server executes the embedded command and returns unexpected output or the command is processed by the underlying shell
The system is affected if RPMMail is installed with a version prior to 1.4 and the SMTP service is running and reachable.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade RPMMail to version 1.4 or later to obtain the patched version. If upgrading is not feasible, restrict network access to the SMTP service via firewall rules or place the server in a secured network segment.
Fix this in Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,072.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-1542 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-1542 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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