CVE-2021-3181
rfc822.c in Mutt through 2.0.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (mailbox unavailability) by sending email messages…
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- mitre
Description
rfc822.c in Mutt through 2.0.4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (mailbox unavailability) by sending email messages with sequences of semicolon characters in RFC822 address fields (aka terminators of empty groups). A small email message from the attacker can cause large memory consumption, and the victim may then be unable to see email messages from other persons.
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 2.8% · top 13% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Weakness
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References (11)
- https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/-/issues/323 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/-/commit/4a2becbdb4422aaffe3ce314991b9d670b7adf17 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/-/commit/939b02b33ae29bc0d642570c1dcfd4b339037d19 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/-/commit/d4305208955c5cdd9fe96dfa61e7c1e14e176a14 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20210119 Re: mutt recipient parsing memory leak (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [debian-lts-announce] 20210120 [SECURITY] [DLA 2529-1] mutt security update (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- GLSA-202101-25 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOx_transferred
- DSA-4838 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIANx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20210127 glibc iconv crash with ISO-2022-JP-3 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- FEDORA-2021-a4f016c6c8 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORAx_transferred
- FEDORA-2021-4205e1fc23 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORAx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2021-3181)Record last updated .