SpamAssassin: Execution of arbitrary code

Background

SpamAssassin is an extensible email filter used to identify junk email. spamd is the daemonized version of SpamAssassin.

Description

When spamd is run with both the “–vpopmail” (-v) and “–paranoid” (-P) options, it is vulnerable to an unspecified issue.

Impact

With certain configuration options, a local or even remote attacker could execute arbitrary code with the rights of the user running spamd, which is root by default, by sending a crafted message to the spamd daemon. Furthermore, the attack can be remotely performed if the “–allowed-ips” (-A) option is present and specifies non-local adresses. Note that Gentoo Linux is not vulnerable in the default configuration.

Workaround

Don’t use both the “–paranoid” (-P) and the “–vpopmail” (-v) options.

Resolution

All SpamAssassin users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=mail-filter/spamassassin-3.1.3"