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FetchmailApplication

CVE-2005-4348

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2005-12-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.2.5.5 / 6.3.1 or later.
See remediation →
87/100
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
fetchmail before 6.3.1 and before 6.2.5.5, when configured for multidrop mode, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) by sending messages without headers from upstream mail servers.

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

fetchmail before 6.3.1 and 6.2.5.5 contains a denial of service vulnerability in multidrop mode. When the software processes messages without headers from upstream mail servers, it triggers a crash. The vulnerability is exploitable remotely by any upstream mail server sending malformed messages.

MitigationUpgrade fetchmail to version 6.3.1 or later (or 6.2.5.5 or later for the 6.2.x branch) to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling multidrop mode or implementing additional mail filtering upstream.

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
FetchmailApplication
Affected:>= 6.2.0, < 6.2.5.5>= 6.3.0, < 6.3.1

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 checks

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

  1. Determine fetchmail version
    Run 'fetchmail --version' or 'fetchmail -V' to display the installed version number
    Affected if Version falls within 6.2.0 to 6.2.5.4, or 6.3.0 (versions below 6.2.5.5 and 6.3.1 are affected)
  2. Verify multidrop mode is configured
    Inspect the fetchmail configuration file (~/.fetchmailrc or /etc/fetchmailrc) for the 'multidrop' keyword, or for the 'antispam' option which is commonly used with multidrop mode
    Affected if Multidrop mode is enabled in the fetchmail configuration

You are affected if fetchmail version is 6.2.0 through 6.2.5.4 or 6.3.0 AND multidrop mode is enabled, as an upstream mail server can crash the process by sending messages lacking 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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.2.5.5 / 6.3.1 or later
Fixed in 6.2.5.56.3.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade fetchmail to version 6.3.1 or later (or 6.2.5.5 or later for the 6.2.x branch) to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling multidrop mode or implementing additional mail filtering upstream.

Fix this in Fetchmail Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2005-4348 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