Carefully crafted email causes Denial of Service in Spam Engine

Carefully crafted email causes Denial of Service in Spam Engine, CVE-2021-34814

Advisory ID: PFPT-SA-2021-0010

Spam Engine contain(s) a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to send a well crafted .dat file through PPS/PoD causing the spam engine to become unresponsive.

The vulnerability results in an uncontrolled resource consumption.

A successful attack may result in a disruption of email delivery. Version 8.12.0-2104190000 of Spam Engine and later affected by this vulnerability. A fix was delivered in version 8.12.0-2106240000.

Thanks to the Cyber Security department of Assicurazioni Generali who have assisted us in identifying this vulnerability.

Vulnerability Information

This vulnerability is identified by CVE-2021-34814. Proofpoint has released fixes to address this issue.

This vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS score of 6.7:

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Fixed Software

Proofpoint has released fixes in Spam Engine 8.12.0-2106240000.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Cyber Security department of Assicurazioni Generali who helped us identify this vulnerability.

Proofpoint on-premises Customers

For on-premise environments that are configured to manually apply releases, install the applicable release as noted above.

No action is required for Enterprise Protection (PPS) Hardware and Virtual Appliance customers, running supported versions that are configured to deploy releases automatically. Applicable fixes have been automatically deployed.

No mail flow will be interrupted while updates are applied.

For any questions or concerns, please contact Proofpoint Support.

URL

https://www.proofpoint.com/us/security/security-advisories/pfpt-sa-2021-0010

Revision History

Version Description Section Date
1.0 Initial release   Oct 11, 2021
1.1 Add acknowledgment section   March 22, 2022

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