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CVE-2016-1531 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Exim mail transfer agent versions prior to 4.86.2. When Exim is installed setuid root and configured with the 'perl_startup' option, any local user who can execute Exim can exploit this configuration to gain root privileges. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of the environment and execution context when invoking Perl code at startup, allowing privilege escalation.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (2 hidden).
This repository contains a single Metasploit module (modules/exploits/unix/local/exim_perl_startup.rb) that exploits a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Exim mail server versions prior to 4.86.2, specifically when the 'perl_startup' configuration parameter is enabled. The exploit leverages a Perl injection via the PERL5DB and PERL5OPT environment variables to execute arbitrary commands as root by invoking the Exim binary with crafted parameters. The module is operational, providing a working payload for local privilege escalation, and is designed for use within the Metasploit framework. The only endpoints referenced are the Exim binary and the relevant environment variables used for the injection. The code is written in Ruby and follows the standard Metasploit module structure.
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