CVE-2010-3476
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 · uneditedOpen Ticket Request System (OTRS) 2.3.x before 2.3.6 and 2.4.x before 2.4.8 does not properly handle the matching of Perl regular expressions against HTML e-mail messages, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a large message, a different vulnerability than CVE-2010-2080.
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 confidenceOTRS versions 2.3.x before 2.3.6 and 2.4.x before 2.4.8 contain a vulnerability in how the system processes Perl regular expressions when matching against HTML e-mail messages. Remote attackers can exploit this by sending large HTML e-mail messages, causing excessive CPU consumption and resulting in a denial of service condition.
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= 2.3.1= 2.3.2= 2.3.3= 2.3.4= 2.3.5= 2.4.1= 2.4.2= 2.4.3= 2.4.4= 2.4.5= 2.4.6= 2.4.7CVSS 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
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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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Identify installed OTRS versionLocate the OTRS version file, typically found in the Kernel/Config.pm file or by running the OTRS system info command (e.g., looking for $Version or $Self->{Version} in Kernel/Config.pm)Affected if The installed version is 2.3.1 through 2.3.5, or 2.4.1 through 2.4.7 (versions before 2.3.6 or 2.4.8)
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Verify HTML email processing is enabledCheck the OTRS configuration file (Kernel/Config.pm) for the PostMaster::PreFilterModule setting, specifically looking for any HTML parsing or regex-based HTML matching modules under PostMaster::PreFilterModuleAffected if HTML email processing modules are enabled in PostMaster::PreFilterModule - this is required for the vulnerable regex matching to occur on incoming emails
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Confirm email parser handles HTML contentReview the Ticket::Email::MaxSize and PostMaster::PreFilterModule settings to determine if the system processes HTML-formatted email messagesAffected if The system is configured to accept and process HTML email messages without size limits or regex timeout constraints
You are affected if running OTRS version 2.3.x before 2.3.6 or 2.4.x before 2.4.8 AND the system processes incoming HTML e-mail messages through its email parser.
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 OTRS to version 2.3.6, 2.4.8, or later to patch this vulnerability. Consider implementing rate limiting or message size limits on incoming e-mails as an additional safeguard.
- Consultation2.0 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-2010-3476 — 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-2010-3476 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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