Cleartext transmission of sensitive information in Mutt - CVE-2020-28896

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Main Vulnerability Database Vulnerabilities #VU48662

Cleartext transmission of sensitive information in Mutt - CVE-2020-28896

Published: November 23, 2020 / Updated: November 26, 2020


Vulnerability identifier: #VU48662
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 7.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2020-28896
CWE-ID: CWE-319
Exploitation vector: Adjecent network
Exploit availability: No public exploit available

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to gain access to sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists due to software does not ensure that $ssl_force_tls is processed if an IMAP server's initial server response is invalid. As a result, the connection is not properly closed, and the application continues authentication attempts. A remote attacker with ability to intercept traffic can perform a MitM attack and gain access to victim's credentials.


Affected software

Mutt
Arch Linux
Gentoo Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM 64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems
Ubuntu
Slackware Linux
openEuler
mutt (Alpine package)
mutt (Ubuntu package)
mutt
mutt-debuginfo
mutt-debugsource
mutt-help
mutt (Red Hat package)

How to mitigate CVE-2020-28896

Install updates from vendor's website.

Mutt - update to 2.0.2
mutt (Alpine package) - update to 2.0.2-r0
mutt (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 1.5.21-5ubuntu2.6, 1.5.24-1ubuntu0.5, 1.9.4-3ubuntu0.4, 1.13.2-1ubuntu0.3, 1.14.6-1ubuntu0.1
mutt - update to 1.10.1-3
mutt-debuginfo - update to 1.10.1-3
mutt-debugsource - update to 1.10.1-3
mutt-help - update to 1.10.1-3
mutt (Red Hat package) - update to 2.0.7-1.el8

External References

Related Security Bulletins