Privilege escalation in Mutt

1) Privilege escalation

EUVDB-ID: #VU13970

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 7.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-14356

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the target system.

The vulnerability exists due to improper handling of a zero-length unique identifier (UID) by the pop.c code. A local attacker can manipulate the UID value assigned to an email message and cause the service to crash or execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Mitigation

Update to version 1.10.1.

Vulnerable software versions

Mutt: 0.95.6 - 1.10.0

External links

http://www.mutt.org/news.html

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to visit a specially crafted website or open a file.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.