Vulnerability · Published Jul 16, 2021 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2021-32749Possible RCE vulnerability in mailing action using mailutils (mail-whois)

Medium 6.1

In plain English

A medium-severity OS command injection in fail2ban from fail2ban. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 3.4% (higher than 89% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.1Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)3.4%top 11.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

fail2ban is a daemon to ban hosts that cause multiple authentication errors. In versions 0.9.7 and prior, 0.10.0 through 0.10.6, and 0.11.0 through 0.11.2, there is a vulnerability that leads to possible remote code execution in the mailing action mail-whois. Command `mail` from mailutils package used in mail actions like `mail-whois` can execute command if unescaped sequences (`\n~`) are available in "foreign" input (for instance in whois output). To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would need to insert malicious characters into the response sent by the whois server, either via a MITM attack or by taking over a whois server. The issue is patched in versions 0.10.7 and 0.11.3. As a workaround, one may avoid the usage of action `mail-whois` or patch the vulnerability manually.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine:v3.20fail2ban0.11.2-r2ALPINE-CVE-2021-32749
Alpine:v3.21fail2ban0.11.2-r2ALPINE-CVE-2021-32749
Alpine:v3.22fail2ban0.11.2-r2ALPINE-CVE-2021-32749
Alpine:v3.23fail2ban0.11.2-r2ALPINE-CVE-2021-32749
Alpine:v3.24fail2ban0.11.2-r2ALPINE-CVE-2021-32749
Debian:12fail2ban0.11.2-2DEBIAN-CVE-2021-32749
Debian:13fail2ban0.11.2-2DEBIAN-CVE-2021-32749
Debian:14fail2ban0.11.2-2DEBIAN-CVE-2021-32749

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
fail2ban fail2ban <= 0.9.7>= 0.10.0, <= 0.10.6>= 0.11.0, <= 0.11.2

Weakness: CWE-78 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N

References