CVE-2006-6408
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 · uneditedKaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers 5.5.10 allows remote attackers to bypass virus detection by inserting invalid characters into base64 encoded content in a multipart/mixed MIME file, as demonstrated with the EICAR test file.
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 confidenceKaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers 5.5.10 fails to properly scan base64-encoded content when invalid characters are inserted into the encoded stream within multipart/mixed MIME attachments, allowing malicious payloads like the EICAR test file to bypass virus detection.
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= 5.5.10CVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
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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Verify Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers is installedRun 'rpm -qa | grep -i kav' or 'dpkg -l | grep -i kav' depending on your Linux distribution to list installed Kaspersky packagesAffected if No Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers package is found in the package list
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Identify the exact product versionRun 'rpm -q --queryformat "%{VERSION}\n" kav mailservers' or check the about/version information in the Kaspersky administration interfaceAffected if The version displayed is exactly 5.5.10
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Confirm the build or patch levelCheck '/opt/kav/mailservers/bin/kav --version' or examine the installed files in '/opt/kav/mailservers/' for any patch subdirectories that might indicate an update beyond 5.5.10Affected if No subsequent build or patch files are present, indicating the original 5.5.10 release is installed
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Test base64 encoding bypass (optional verification)Create a test attachment with base64-encoded content containing invalid characters inserted within the encoded stream in a multipart/mixed MIME format, then scan it using kavscanner or the command-line scanner if availableAffected if The EICAR test string or known malicious payload embedded in this manner is not detected or is reported as clean
You are affected if Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers version 5.5.10 is installed and no subsequent updates or patches have been applied to address the base64 scanning bypass.
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 dataUpdate Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux Mail Servers to a version newer than 5.5.10, as this bypass vulnerability was addressed in subsequent patch releases.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-6408 — 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-2006-6408 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data