CVE-2014-3956
sendmail: Properly set the close-on-exec flag for file descriptors
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 2.0
Review impact separately from score.
Published · May 21, 2014
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
The sm_close_on_exec function in conf.c in sendmail before 8.14.9 has arguments in the wrong order, and consequently skips setting expected FD_CLOEXEC flags, which allows local users to access unintended high-numbered file descriptors via a custom mail-delivery program.
Statement
This issue affects the versions of sendmail as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, 6, and 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having Low security impact. This issue is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 2.0 · 1AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N
CWE not specified