smtp_mailaddr in smtp_session.c in OpenSMTPD 6.6, as used in OpenBSD 6.6 and other products, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands as root via a crafted SMTP session, as demonstrated by shell metacharacters in a MAIL FROM field. This affects the "uncommented" default configuration. The issue exists because of an incorrect return value upon failure of input validation.
CVE-2020-7247
Score elevated to 9.8 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 9.8
- EG Score
- 9.8(high)
- EPSS
- 99.9%
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
Published
January 29, 2020
Last Modified
November 7, 2025
Advisory Details (7)
Auto-updated Jun 1, 2026Bugtraq: [SECURITY] [DSA 4611-1] opensmtpd security update
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/51[SECURITY] Fedora 32 Update: opensmtpd-6.6.4p1-2.fc32 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OPH4QU4DNVHA7ACFXMYFCEP5PSXXPN4E/commit 9dcfda045474 (openbsd/src)
Fix landed in openbsd/src commit 9dcfda045474 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/openbsd/src/commit/9dcfda045474d8903224d175907bfc29761dcb45oss-security - LPE and RCE in OpenSMTPD (CVE-2020-7247)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/01/28/3Full Disclosure: LPE and RCE in OpenSMTPD (CVE-2020-7247)
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Jan/49Patch Availability(2)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | opensmtpd (6.0.3p1-6ubuntu0.1) @ eoan | 2026-07-11 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | opensmtpd (5.7.3p2-1ubuntu0.1~esm2) @ xenial | 2026-07-11 | ubuntu |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(3)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(2)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 111× in last 7d / 491× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 705 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-11 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 20:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 20:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-11 16:56 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 16:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 16:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-11 12:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 12:55 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 12:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-11 08:53 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 08:53 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 08:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-11 04:52 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 04:52 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 04:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-11 00:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-11 00:51 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-11 00:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-10 20:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 20:50 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-10 20:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-10 17:52 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-10 16:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 16:49 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-10 16:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
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- 2026-07-10 12:48 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 12:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-10 08:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 08:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-10 04:43 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 04:43 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-10 04:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-10 00:43 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-10 00:43 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-10 00:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 20:41 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 20:41 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-09 20:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 16:40 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 16:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 12:38 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 12:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 08:37 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 08:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 04:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 04:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-09 00:33 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-09 00:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 20:31 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 20:31 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-08 20:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 16:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 16:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 12:29 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 12:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 08:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 08:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-08 08:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 04:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 04:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-08 04:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-08 00:25 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-08 00:25 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-08 00:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 20:24 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 20:24 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-07 20:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 19:01 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-07 17:16 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-07 16:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 16:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 12:18 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 12:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 08:14 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 08:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 04:10 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 04:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-07 00:08 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-07 00:08 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-07 00:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-06 20:07 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-06 20:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-06 16:05 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-06 16:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-06 12:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-06 12:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-06 08:00 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-06 08:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-06 03:58 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-06 03:58 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-06 03:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-05 23:57 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-05 23:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-05 23:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-05 19:56 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-05 19:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-05 19:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-05 15:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-05 15:55 UTCVendor advisory
Publicly available exploits
(10 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (7 GitHub PoCs) (3 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- GitHub PoCpresentdaypresenttime/shai_huludFirst seen Feb 7, 2022
Worm written in python, abuses CVE-2020-7247
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCSimonSchoeni/CVE-2020-7247-POCFirst seen Nov 26, 2021
Proof of concept for CVE-2020-7247 for educational purposes.
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCf4T1H21/CVE-2020-7247First seen Jun 19, 2021
PoC exploit for CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD 6.4.0 < 6.6.1 Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCQTranspose/CVE-2020-7247-exploitFirst seen Feb 13, 2021
OpenSMTPD 6.4.0 - 6.6.1 Remote Code Execution PoC exploit
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCr0lh/CVE-2020-7247First seen Feb 18, 2020
Proof Of Concept Exploit for CVE-2020-7247 (Remote Execution on OpenSMTPD < 6.6.2
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCsuperzerosec/cve-2020-7247First seen Feb 17, 2020
OpenSMTPD version 6.6.2 remote code execution exploit
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-48051✓ verifiedFirst seen Feb 11, 2020
OpenSMTPD 6.4.0 < 6.6.1 - Local Privilege Escalation + Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-48038✓ verifiedFirst seen Feb 10, 2020
OpenSMTPD - MAIL FROM Remote Code Execution (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-47984✓ verifiedFirst seen Jan 30, 2020
OpenSMTPD 6.6.1 - Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCFiroSolutions/cve-2020-7247-exploitFirst seen Jan 30, 2020
Python exploit of cve-2020-7247
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownubuntu
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-78 · CWE-252 · CWE-755
Frequently asked(6)
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Dependency Blast Radius
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