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SpamdykeApplication

CVE-2012-0070

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-01-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
spamdyke prior to 4.2.1: STARTTLS reveals plaintext

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 confidence

spamdyke before 4.2.1 contains a STARTTLS stripping vulnerability where a man-in-the-middle attacker can remove or intercept the STARTTLS capability advertisement, forcing plaintext communication between SMTP servers even when both endpoints support TLS encryption, thereby exposing email content in transit.

MitigationUpgrade spamdyke to version 4.2.1 or later, which contains the fix for this STARTTLS handling vulnerability.

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
SpamdykeApplication
Affected:< 4.2.1

CVSS 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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check spamdyke installed version
    Run 'spamdyke --version' or query the package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q spamdyke', 'dpkg -l spamdyke', or check /var/qmail/control/spamdyke* files)
    Affected if The reported version is less than 4.2.1
  2. Verify spamdyke is active in SMTP path
    Inspect the SMTP server configuration to confirm spamdyke is in the delivery path (check qmail-smtpd run scripts, /var/qmail/control/ or similar configuration directories for spamdyke directives)
    Affected if spamdyke is actively intercepting SMTP connections
  3. Confirm STARTTLS capability handling
    Review spamdyke configuration files for directives related to TLS/STARTTLS (typically in /etc/spamdyke.conf or /var/qmail/control/spamdyke*.conf)
    Affected if STARTTLS-related configuration is present and spamdyke version is vulnerable
  4. Test actual STARTTLS behavior
    Connect to the SMTP server and observe whether STARTTLS is properly advertised and accepted when spamdyke is in the path (e.g., using telnet or openssl s_client to port 25)
    Affected if STARTTLS is stripped or not properly relayed when both endpoints support encryption

A user is affected if spamdyke version 4.2.1 or higher is not installed and spamdyke is actively handling SMTP connections with STARTTLS capability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.2.1 or later
Fixed in 4.2.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade spamdyke to version 4.2.1 or later, which contains the fix for this STARTTLS handling vulnerability.

Fix this in Spamdyke Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-0070 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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