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ImapApplication · University Of Washington

CVE-2000-0847

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2000-11-14
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Buffer overflow in University of Washington c-client library (used by pine and other programs) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a long X-Keywords header.

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 · high confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerability in the University of Washington c-client library (used by Pine and other email clients) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a specially crafted, overly long X-Keywords email header.

MitigationApply available patches or update to a newer version of the UW c-client library that addresses the buffer overflow; implement input validation on email headers to reject excessively long X-Keywords values.

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
ImapApplication
Affected:= 4.7b= 4.7c
PineApplication
Affected:= 4.20= 4.21

CVSS 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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the installed UW c-client library or Pine version
    Run 'pine -v' or check your imapd/pine package version using your system's package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q pine', 'dpkg -l | grep pine', or check /usr/local/lib/c-client.a version string)
    Affected if The version is 4.7b, 4.7c (for imap/c-client) or 4.20, 4.21 (for Pine)
  2. Confirm the c-client library is in use
    Check if the mail client or IMAP server links against the UW c-client library by examining linked libraries (e.g., 'ldd /usr/sbin/imapd' on Linux) or checking for 'c-client' in the binary
    Affected if The application uses the UW c-client library for mail processing
  3. Verify email header processing is enabled
    Confirm the mail client or IMAP server processes incoming email headers, particularly custom headers like X-Keywords; this is typically enabled by default in Pine and UW IMAP
    Affected if The system accepts and processes incoming email headers including X-Keywords

You are affected if you are running UW Imap version 4.7b or 4.7c, or Pine version 4.20 or 4.21, and your system processes incoming email with X-Keywords headers.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply available patches or update to a newer version of the UW c-client library that addresses the buffer overflow; implement input validation on email headers to reject excessively long X-Keywords values.

Fix this in Imap Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,440
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2000-0847 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data