CVE-2017-5223
5.5 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2017-5223 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting phpmailer_project phpmailer. It was published on January 16, 2017 and has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 5.5, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
Technical Description
An issue was discovered in PHPMailer before 5.2.22. PHPMailer's msgHTML method applies transformations to an HTML document to make it usable as an email message body. One of the transformations is to convert relative image URLs into attachments using a script-provided base directory. If no base directory is provided, it resolves to /, meaning that relative image URLs get treated as absolute local file paths and added as attachments. To form a remote vulnerability, the msgHTML method must be called, passed an unfiltered, user-supplied HTML document, and must not set a base directory.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from phpmailer_project. Update phpmailer to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| phpmailer_project | phpmailer | 0 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2017-5223?
CVE-2017-5223 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting phpmailer_project phpmailer. It was published on January 16, 2017 and has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2017-5223?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 5.5, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2017-5223?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from phpmailer_project. Update phpmailer to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2017-5223?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2017-5223 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
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