A remote command execution (RCE) security issue affects more than half of Internet e-mail servers, according to researchers better safetyof Qualys.
Η vulnerability affects Exim, a mail transfer agent (MTA), which is software that runs on email servers to relay messages from senders to recipients.
According to one research Of all mail servers visible on the Internet, 57% (507,389) of all servers run Exim.
In a security alert, Qualys, a cybersecurity company that specializes in cloud security, said it found a very dangerous vulnerability in Exim installations in versions 4.87 to 4.91.
The vulnerability is described as RCE and is different, but just as dangerous as the remote code execution vulnerability which allows a local or remote attacker to run commands on the Exim server as root.
Qualys reported that the vulnerability can be directly exploited by a local attacker who has physics presence on an email server, even with a low-privilege account.
But the real danger comes from remote hackers who exploit the vulnerability, as they can scan the Internet for vulnerable servers and compromise systems.
"Due to the extreme complexity of the Exim code, we can not guarantee that this method of exploitation is unique, there may be faster methods."
In addition, the Qualys team reports that the vulnerability was fixed completely by accident:
The vulnerability was fixed with the release of Exim 4.92 on February 10, 2019, but at the time version 4.92 was released, they were unaware of the security vulnerability.
It was recently discovered by the Qualys team while checking older versions of Exim, and now they are warning them users of Exim to update to version 4.92.
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