Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2020-28896


Mutt before 2.0.2 and NeoMutt before 2020-11-20 did not ensure that $ssl_force_tls was processed if an IMAP server's initial server response was invalid. The connection was not properly closed, and the code could continue attempting to authenticate. This could result in authentication credentials being exposed on an unencrypted connection, or to a machine-in-the-middle.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.3, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network but requires specific conditions to be met though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from mutt, from neomutt, from debian organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2020-11-23T19:15:11.413

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:23:14.600

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.3 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: HIGH
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: NONE
Exploitability Score

4.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-287
    CWE-755

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application mutt mutt < 2.0.2 Yes
Application neomutt neomutt < 2020-11-20 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 9.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For mutt's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.