CVE-2006-6409
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 · uneditedF-Secure Anti-Virus for Linux Gateways 4.65 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (possibly fatal scan error), and possibly 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 confidenceF-Secure Anti-Virus for Linux Gateways version 4.65 contains a vulnerability in its MIME/base64 parsing logic. By inserting invalid characters into base64 encoded content within multipart/mixed MIME files, remote attackers can trigger a fatal scan error causing denial of service, and potentially evade virus detection. The EICAR test file was used to demonstrate the bypass.
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= 4.65CVSS 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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Identify the installed F-Secure Anti-Virus versionRun 'f-secure' or 'fsav' command with version flag, or check the package manager output for f-secure packages (e.g., 'rpm -q f-secure' or 'dpkg -l | grep f-secure')Affected if The installed version is exactly 4.65
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Confirm mail/gateway scanning is activeCheck the F-Secure configuration for gateway or mail scanning modules. Look for configuration files in /opt/f-secure/ or /etc/f-secure/ that enable mail/gateway scanningAffected if Gateway or mail scanning is enabled and the version is 4.65
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Verify base64 MIME parsing is in useInspect the F-Secure scanning configuration for MIME/base64 decoding settings. Check if multipart/mixed content scanning with base64 decoding is enabled in the gateway scanning profileAffected if Base64 decoding for MIME content is enabled and the version is 4.65
The environment is affected only if F-Secure Anti-Virus for Linux Gateways version 4.65 is installed with gateway/mail scanning and base64 MIME parsing enabled.
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 F-Secure Anti-Virus for Linux Gateways to a version newer than 4.65 that includes the fix for this base64 parsing vulnerability. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, consider disabling or restricting base64 decoding in mail/gateway scanning until the patch can be applied.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-6409 — 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-2006-6409 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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- 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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