Cleartext storage of sensitive information in Mozilla Thunderbird - CVE-2021-29950

Vulnerability identifier: #VU52375

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 6.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2021-29950

CWE-ID: CWE-312

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to gain access to sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists due to the way Thunderbird handles secret OpenPGP keys. The application unprotects a secret OpenPGP key prior to using it for a decryption, signing or key import task. If the task runs into a failure, the secret key may remain in memory in its unprotected state. A local user or malicious application can read the key and use it to decrypt email messages.

Mozilla Thunderbird
SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension
Ubuntu
thunderbird (Ubuntu package)
MozillaThunderbird
MozillaThunderbird-debuginfo
MozillaThunderbird-debugsource
MozillaThunderbird-translations-common
MozillaThunderbird-translations-other

Install updates from vendor's website.

Mozilla Thunderbird - update to 78.9.1
thunderbird (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 1:78.8.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1, 1:78.8.1+build1-0ubuntu0.20.10.1
MozillaThunderbird - update to 78.10.2-8.27.1
MozillaThunderbird-debuginfo - update to 78.10.2-8.27.1
MozillaThunderbird-debugsource - update to 78.10.2-8.27.1
MozillaThunderbird-translations-common - update to 78.10.2-8.27.1
MozillaThunderbird-translations-other - update to 78.10.2-8.27.1

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2021-17/

• Information disclosure in Mozilla Thunderbird
• SUSE update for MozillaThunderbird
• Ubuntu update for thunderbird