Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2023-52159
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 · uneditedA stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in gross 0.9.3 through 1.x before 1.0.4 allows remote attackers to trigger a denial of service (grossd daemon crash) or potentially execute arbitrary code in grossd via crafted SMTP transaction parameters that cause an incorrect strncat for a log entry.
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 confidenceA stack-based buffer overflow in the grossd mail daemon versions 0.9.3 through 1.x before 1.0.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code via crafted SMTP transaction parameters that result in an incorrect strncat call when writing log entries.
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 10.0>= 0.9.3, < 1.0.4CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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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Check if gross package is installedRun 'dpkg -l | grep gross' on Debian systems, or check for /usr/sbin/grossd binary with 'which grossd'Affected if grossd binary is present on the system
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Determine grossd versionRun 'grossd --version' or 'dpkg -l | grep gross' to see the installed version numberAffected if version is 0.9.3 or higher but below 1.0.4
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Check if grossd service is activeRun 'systemctl status grossd' or check process list with 'ps aux | grep grossd'Affected if grossd daemon is running as a service
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Verify grossd network exposureCheck listening ports with 'ss -tlnp | grep grossd' or 'netstat -tlnp | grep grossd', and review firewall rulesAffected if grossd is listening on a network-accessible port (not bound to localhost only)
You are affected if grossd version is 0.9.3 or higher but below 1.0.4 AND the service is running and network-accessible.
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.
dbcve · scoped1.0.4
Upgrade gross to version 1.0.4 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict network exposure to the grossd service.
1.0.4
- Update your package lists: apt-get update
- Upgrade gross to version 1.0.4 or later: apt-get install gross>=1.0.4
- Restart the grossd daemon to apply the changes: systemctl restart grossd or service grossd restart
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52159 — 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-2023-52159 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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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.
- 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