securityonline.info 21 Sept 2026, 00:34 UTC

Exim Fixes Proxy Protocol Bugs and SMTP Smuggling Flaw

Exim Fixes Proxy Protocol Bugs and SMTP Smuggling Flaw
CyberSIXT Evidence Panel Source marked as original reporting

EXIM released version 4.100.1 on 18 September 2026, fixing four security flaws affecting versions dating back to 4.83. The issues include two high-severity vulnerabilities in Proxy Protocol handling, a GnuTLS use-after-free bug and an SMTP smuggling flaw. The highest-rated issue, CVE-2026-94056, has a CVSS v3 score of 7.5, while CVE-2026-94054 is rated 7.0, CVE-2026-94057 is rated 4.0 and CVE-2026-94055 is described as low severity. Exim maintainers reported no exploitation in the wild and no confirmed public proof-of-concept at the time of writing.

CVE-2026-94054 can cause a remote read of about 230 bytes beyond a heap allocation and a one-byte NUL write, while CVE-2026-94056 can disclose uninitialised stack data. Both require Exim to sit behind a buggy or compromised proxy using Proxy Protocol. CVE-2026-94055 can crash a receiving process, but only with GnuTLS and the non-default TLS-on-connect configuration. CVE-2026-94057 allows crafted data placed after a rejection during the SMTP DATA phase to create a message different from the one recorded by the sender.

The Proxy Protocol and SMTP smuggling flaws affect Exim 4.83 through 4.100; the GnuTLS issue affects 4.98 through 4.100. Administrators are advised to upgrade to 4.100.1. Three flaws have no workaround, while disabling the non-default `tls_early_banner_hosts` option provides a temporary mitigation for the GnuTLS issue.

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Article by CyberSIXT