Information disclosure via buffered STARTTLS commands
Published Jan 4, 2022 · Updated Aug 4, 2024
STARTTLS command injection in Apache James Server before 3.6.1 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to read sensitive mail data. The IMAP and POP3 STARTTLS upgrade path fails to discard protocol commands buffered before the TLS handshake, so James processes attacker-injected commands inside the protected session. Exploitation requires a network man-in-the-middle position during STARTTLS negotiation; the reported consequence is confidential information disclosure, not data modification or service interruption.
Summary
What happened
STARTTLS command injection in Apache James Server before 3.6.1 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to read sensitive mail data. The IMAP and POP3 STARTTLS upgrade path fails to discard protocol commands buffered before the TLS handshake, so James processes attacker-injected commands inside the protected session. Exploitation requires a network man-in-the-middle position during STARTTLS negotiation; the reported consequence is confidential information disclosure, not data modification or service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-38542
- Published
- Jan 4, 2022
- Updated
- Aug 4, 2024
- Vendor
- The Apache Software Foundation
- Product
- Apache James Server
- Classifications
- CWE-327, CWE-77, T1557
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 4, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=Apache James <3.6.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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