CVE-2010-0535
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 · uneditedDovecot in Apple Mac OS X 10.6 before 10.6.3, when Kerberos is enabled, does not properly enforce the service access control list (SACL) for sending and receiving e-mail, which allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended access restrictions via unspecified vectors.
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 confidenceDovecot IMAP/POP3 server on Mac OS X 10.6 (prior to 10.6.3) fails to enforce Service Access Control Lists (SACLs) when Kerberos authentication is enabled. This allows any remote authenticated user to bypass intended email access restrictions, potentially reading or sending email they should not have access to.
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= 10.6.0= 10.6.1= 10.6.2= 10.6.0= 10.6.1= 10.6.2CVSS 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
- Single
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Mac OS X version is affectedRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal to check if the system is running 10.6.0, 10.6.1, or 10.6.2Affected if The version output is 10.6, 10.6.1, or 10.6.2 (not 10.6.3 or later)
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Verify Dovecot is runningRun 'ps aux | grep -i dovecot' or check for IMAP/POP3 listeners with 'lsof -i :143,imap,993,pop3s'Affected if Dovecot process is running and listening on IMAP (port 143) or POP3 (port 110/995)
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Check if Kerberos authentication is enabled in DovecotExamine Dovecot configuration in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf or /etc/dovecot/conf.d/ for 'auth_mechanisms' containing GSSAPI, or look for 'auth_gssapi' settingsAffected if Dovecot configuration includes GSSAPI or other Kerberos-related authentication mechanisms (such as 'auth_mechanisms = plain login GSSAPI')
The system is affected only if it runs Mac OS X 10.6.0-10.6.2, has Dovecot running, and has Kerberos (GSSAPI) authentication enabled in the Dovecot configuration.
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 Mac OS X to 10.6.3 or later which contains the corrected Dovecot binary with proper SACL enforcement. Alternatively, if update is not feasible, consider disabling Kerberos authentication for Dovecot until the patch can be applied.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2010-0535 — 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-2010-0535 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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