CVE-1999-0205: Denial of service in Sendmail 8.6.11 and 8.6.12.

Routine

MEDIUM 5.0DOWNGRADE

CVE-1999-0205 is a medium-severity flaw (CVSS 5.0) affecting sendmail. Below: why it ranks where it does, which versions are affected, what to do, and the exact commands.

Denial of service in Sendmail 8.6.11 and 8.6.12.

Why this priority

No elevated risk signals yet

No fix is published yet: follow the downgrade or mitigation steps.

Risk facts

CVSS score	5.0 (Medium)
EPSS exploit chance	1.3% (top 29%)
CISA exploited list	No
Published	1999-01-01
Last modified	2026-06-16

Publisher (CNA): MITRE · Vendor: eric allman

Last updated 2026-06-16 · Sources: CVE Program, NVD, CISA KEV, EPSS and vendor advisories · How we score

Am I affected?

Timeline

1999-01-01 05:00 UTCPublished CVE record published
2026-06-16 21:47 UTCUpdated Record last modified

eric allman sendmail DOWNGRADE

Affected: 8.6.11 · 8.6.12

Fixed in: no fixed release known

Safe to downgrade to: a release before 8.6.11

1. Check installed version

apt-cache policy sendmail || rpm -q sendmail || sendmail --version

2. No fixed release: DOWNGRADE to a release before 8.6.11 (Debian / Ubuntu)

apt-cache madison sendmail sudo apt install sendmail=<VERSION_BEFORE_8.6.11> sudo apt-mark hold sendmail

2. No fixed release: DOWNGRADE (RHEL / Amazon Linux / Fedora)

dnf --showduplicates list sendmail sudo dnf downgrade sendmail-<VERSION_BEFORE_8.6.11> sudo dnf versionlock add sendmail

Downgrade risk

Downgrading can break dependent software and may reopen older bugs. Read the distro advisory first and test on a non-production host.

After downgrade

Restart the service, and keep the package held until a fixed release ships.

Verify at the official source NVD · CVE Program · Report a problem with this page
Scores and fixes here are computed automatically from those and other public sources. Confirm with the vendor advisory before changing production systems.

Quick answers

How do I fix CVE-1999-0205?

sendmail: downgrade or apply the listed mitigation. Exact commands for each OS are on this page.

Is CVE-1999-0205 being exploited?

CVE-1999-0205 is not on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list at the time of the last update. Check again, as this can change.

What does CVE-1999-0205 affect?

CVE-1999-0205 affects sendmail. Severity is medium (CVSS 5.0). Denial of service in Sendmail 8.6.11 and 8.6.12.

How urgent is CVE-1999-0205?

Priority 35/100. No elevated risk signals yet.

Related CVEs

CVE-2023-51765 MEDIUM 5.3 UPGRADE UPGRADE sendmail through 8.17.2 allows SMTP smuggling in certain configurations
CVE-2021-3618 HIGH 7.4 UPGRADE UPGRADE ALPACA is an application layer protocol content confusion attack, exploiting TLS servers implementing differen
CVE-2014-3956 LOW 1.9 UPGRADE UPGRADE The sm_close_on_exec function in conf.c in sendmail before 8.14.9 has arguments in the wrong order, and conseq
CVE-2009-4565 HIGH 7.5 UPGRADE sendmail before 8.14.4 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certi
CVE-2009-1490 MEDIUM 5.0 UPGRADE Heap-based buffer overflow in Sendmail before 8.13.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (dae

References

← Back to latest CVEs