Postfix through 3.8.5 allows SMTP smuggling unless configured with smtpd_data_restrictions=reject_unauth_pipelining and smtpd_discard_ehlo_keywords=chunking (or certain other options that exist in recent versions). Remote attackers can use a published exploitation technique to inject e-mail messages with a spoofed MAIL FROM address, allowing bypass of an SPF protection mechanism. This occurs because Postfix supports . but some other popular e-mail servers do not. To prevent attack variants (by always disallowing without ), a different solution is required, such as the smtpd_forbid_bare_newline=yes option with a Postfix minimum version of 3.5.23, 3.6.13, 3.7.9, 3.8.4, or 3.9.
CVE-2023-51764
Score 5.3 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2023-12-24. NVD baseline CVSS 5.3; sources differ by 0.0.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 5.3
- EG Score
- 5.3(medium)
- EG Risk
- 44(Track)EG Risk 44/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity53% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS
- 83.7%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
December 24, 2023
Last Modified
June 17, 2026
References (36)
- cve@mitrehttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/12/24/1
- cve@mitrehttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/12/25/1
- cve@mitrehttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/05/09/3
- cve@mitrehttps://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-51764
- cve@mitrehttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2255563
- cve@mitrehttps://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2023/fahrplan/events/11782.html
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/duy-31/CVE-2023-51764
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/eeenvik1/CVE-2023-51764
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/01/msg00020.html
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JQ5WXFCW2N6G2PH3JXDTYW5PH5EBQEGO/
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QRLF5SOS7TP5N7FQSEK2NFNB44ISVTZC/
- cve@mitrehttps://lwn.net/Articles/956533/
- cve@mitrehttps://sec-consult.com/blog/detail/smtp-smuggling-spoofing-e-mails-worldwide/
- cve@mitrehttps://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/01/22/1
- cve@mitrehttps://www.postfix.org/announcements/postfix-3.8.5.html
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-51764(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | postfix-pgsql (3.1.0-3ubuntu0.4+esm2) @ xenial | 2026-05-24 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | postfix-sqlite (3.4.13-0ubuntu1.4) @ focal | 2026-05-24 | ubuntu |
| redhat | postfix-2:3.5.25-1.el9 | 2024-11-12 | redhat |
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(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(3)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2023-517642024-01-06
Postfix through 3.8.5 allows SMTP smuggling unless configured with smtpd_data_restrictions=reject_unauth_pipelining and smtpd_discard_ehlo_keywords=chunking (or certain other options that exist in recent versions). Remote attackers can use a published exploitation technique to inject e-mail messages with a spoofed MAIL FROM address allowing bypass of an SPF protection mechanism. This occurs because Postfix supports <LF>.<CR><LF> but some other popular e-mail servers do not. To prevent attack variants (by always disallowing <LF> without <CR>) a different solution is required such as the smtpd_forbid_bare_newline=yes option with a Postfix minimum version of 3.5.23 3.6.13 3.7.9 3.8.4 or 3.9.
- UbuntuUSN-6591-1MEDIUM
Postfix vulnerability
- UbuntuUSN-6591-2MEDIUM
Postfix update
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 13× in last 7d / 48× 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.
- 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 02:29 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 23:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 00:10 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-08 15:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 01:07 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-09 11:28 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-24 11:31 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-24 11:31 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-24 11:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
Publicly available exploits
(2 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (2 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- GitHub PoCeeenvik1/CVE-2023-51764First seen Dec 28, 2023
PoC CVE-2023-51764
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCduy-31/CVE-2023-51764First seen Dec 26, 2023
Postfix SMTP Smuggling - Expect Script POC
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2023-51764?
When was CVE-2023-51764 disclosed?
Is CVE-2023-51764 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-51764?
How do I remediate CVE-2023-51764?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2023-51764
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