OS Command InjectionWeakness · CWE-78

CVE-2024-6048

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-06-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Openfind's MailGates and MailAudit fail to properly filter user input when analyzing email attachments. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to inject system commands and execute them on the remote server.

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

This is a command injection vulnerability in Openfind's MailGates and MailAudit email security products. The products fail to properly sanitize user input when analyzing email attachments, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to inject and execute arbitrary system commands on the server. With a CVSS score of 9.8, this is a critical RCE vulnerability exploitable without any authentication.

MitigationApply the vendor patch or update to MailGates/MailAudit immediately. If no patch is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure and deploy WAF rules to detect command injection patterns in email traffic.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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

  1. Confirm product installation
    Identify whether Openfind MailGates or MailAudit is installed on the system by reviewing installed software, services, or running processes related to Openfind mail products.
    Affected if The system is running Openfind MailGates or MailAudit email security products.
  2. Determine installed version
    Locate the version information for the installed MailGates or MailAudit installation using vendor documentation, product interfaces, or system files where version metadata is stored.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any vulnerable version range for CVE-2024-6048.
  3. Verify attachment analysis feature is active
    Check whether the email attachment scanning or analysis module is enabled in the product configuration, as this is the vulnerable attack surface.
    Affected if The attachment analysis feature is enabled and accessible to process incoming email attachments.
  4. Assess network exposure
    Determine if the mail gateway service is exposed to unauthenticated network access, as this vulnerability is exploitable without authentication.
    Affected if The product is reachable from untrusted networks without authentication barriers.

A system is affected if it runs a vulnerable version of Openfind MailGates or MailAudit with the attachment analysis feature enabled and accessible to unauthenticated users.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor patch or update to MailGates/MailAudit immediately. If no patch is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure and deploy WAF rules to detect command injection patterns in email traffic.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing10.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,340
Get help mitigating

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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-6048 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-6048 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