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CVE-2018-14362: Mutt: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

CVE-2018-14362 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and affects Mutt, along with 8 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

An issue was discovered in Mutt before 1.10.1 and NeoMutt before 2018-07-16. pop.c does not forbid characters that may have unsafe interaction with message-cache pathnames, as demonstrated by a '/' character.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.8: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary.

Affected products

  • Mutt: before 1.10.1
  • Neomutt: before 20180716
  • Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 16.04
  • Debian Linux: 8.0; 9.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 6.0; 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: 6.0; 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 7.6; 7.7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 7.5; 7.6; 7.7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Tus: 7.6; 7.7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 6.0; 7.0

References