Email header injection via malformed comment folding
Published Jan 20, 2026 · Updated Jan 20, 2026
Header injection in CPython's email module allows remote authenticated users to add fields to generated messages through crafted addresses. When a modern email policy flattens an address comment made only of a long sequence of non-foldable characters, _header_value_parser.py forces a line wrap without the required leading whitespace, so the remaining comment is parsed as a new header field. Reachability requires an application to accept an unsanitized user-controlled address and flatten the message; the bounded consequence is unauthorized modification of generated email headers.
Summary
What happened
Header injection in CPython's email module allows remote authenticated users to add fields to generated messages through crafted addresses. When a modern email policy flattens an address comment made only of a long sequence of non-foldable characters, _header_value_parser.py forces a line wrap without the required leading whitespace, so the remaining comment is parsed as a new header field. Reachability requires an application to accept an unsanitized user-controlled address and flatten the message; the bounded consequence is unauthorized modification of generated email headers.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-11468
- Published
- Jan 20, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 20, 2026
- Vendor
- Python Software Foundation
- Product
- CPython
- Classifications
- CWE-93
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 20, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 20, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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- Affected versionversion=0 <3.15.0
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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