CVE-2010-0439
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 · uneditedChip Salzenberg Deliver allows local users to cause a denial of service, obtain sensitive information, and possibly change the ownership of arbitrary files via a symlink attack on an unspecified 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 · moderate confidenceThe Deliver mail delivery agent contains a symlink attack vulnerability allowing local users to manipulate file operations. By creating malicious symlinks, attackers can cause denial of service through file overwrites, potentially read sensitive files, and modify file ownership permissions arbitrarily.
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= 2.1.14CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/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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Verify Deliver mail delivery agent is installedCheck for the presence of the 'deliver' binary by running 'which deliver' or 'find / -name deliver -type f 2>/dev/null'Affected if The deliver binary is found on the system
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Check installed Deliver versionRun 'deliver -v' or 'deliver --version' to obtain the version numberAffected if The version is exactly 2.1.14 (as specified in the affected version range)
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Confirm Deliver is configured as an MDAReview mail server configuration files (such as sendmail, qmail, or procmail config) for entries invoking the deliver binary as a mail delivery agentAffected if Deliver is configured and actively used as a mail delivery agent in the mail system
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Inspect Deliver's working directory for symlink vulnerabilitiesExamine directories where Deliver performs file operations (typically user mail spool directories) for world-writable permissions that could allow symlink creationAffected if Mail spool or delivery directories have permissive permissions allowing untrusted users to create symlinks in those paths
The environment is affected only if Deliver version 2.1.14 is installed and actively used as a mail delivery agent in a configuration where untrusted users can place symlinks in paths used for file operations.
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 dataImplement safe file handling by checking for symlinks before file operations using functions like fstat() with S_ISLNK or O_NOFOLLOW flag, and validate all file paths to ensure they do not traverse to unexpected locations.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $3,168.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-0439 — 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-2010-0439 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data