CVE-2019-18862

HIGH

GNU Mailutils < 3.8 - Local Privilege Escalation via maidag URL Mode

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2019-18862. PoCs published by Mike Gualtieri.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This is a detailed writeup describing a local privilege escalation vulnerability in GNU Mailutils (CVE-2019-18862) where the maidag utility's --url parameter can be abused to write to arbitrary files as root due to setuid permissions. The exploit involves writing to the crontab to execute arbitrary commands.

Description

maidag in GNU Mailutils before 3.8 is installed setuid and allows local privilege escalation in the url mode.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WRITEUP
by Mike Gualtieri · textlocallinux
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/47703

This is a detailed writeup describing a local privilege escalation vulnerability in GNU Mailutils (CVE-2019-18862) where the maidag utility's --url parameter can be abused to write to arbitrary files as root due to setuid permissions. The exploit involves writing to the crontab to execute arbitrary commands.

Classification
Writeup 100%
Attack Type
Lpe
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: GNU Mailutils 2.0 - 3.7
No auth needed
Prerequisites: maidag binary with setuid root permissions · local access to the system
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (3)

Core 3
Core References
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_gentoo
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-12

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0114
EPSS Percentile 62.5%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

Status published
Products (1)
gnu/mailutils < 3.8
Published Nov 11, 2019
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026