Description
Scrubber.py in Mailman 2.1.5-8 does not properly handle UTF8 character encodings in filenames of e-mail attachments, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash).
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 3.1 | mailman | 2.1.5-8sarge1 | DSA-955-1 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 4 | mailman | 3:2.1.5.1-34.rhel4.2 | RHSA-2006:0204 |
| RHEL 3 | mailman | 3:2.1.5.1-25.rhel3.4 | RHSA-2006:0204 |
Advisories 2
- RHSA-2006:0204 Red Hat Security Advisory: mailman security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- DSA-955-1 mailman - DoS Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- 19167 third-party-advisory
- USN-242-1 vendor-advisory
- 18503 third-party-advisory
- ADV-2005-2404 vdb-entry
- 2006-0012 vendor-advisory
- RHSA-2006:0204 vendor-advisory
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:10038 vdb-entry signature
- 20819 vdb-entry
- mailman-utf8-scrubber-dos(23139) vdb-entry
- 18456 third-party-advisory
- 1015735 vdb-entry
- SUSE-SR:2006:001 vendor-advisory
- 17874 third-party-advisory
- 19532 third-party-advisory
- MDKSA-2005:222 vendor-advisory
- 15408 vdb-entry
- 18612 third-party-advisory
- 17511 third-party-advisory
- [Mailman-Users] 20050912 Uncaught runner exception: 'utf8' codeccan'tdecode bytes in position 1-4: invalid data mailing-list
- 19196 third-party-advisory
- http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=327732
- DSA-955 vendor-advisory