imaplib STARTTLS serves plaintext bytes buffered before the handshake as if they came over TLS

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-115559
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerPSF
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-11-10 19:19:11 UTC
Updated2026-11-10 19:19:11 UTC
DescriptionIMAP4.starttls() wraps the socket in TLS but leaves self._readbuf, imaplib's own read-ahead buffer, untouched. Any plaintext bytes that arrived in the same recv() as the tagged OK to STARTTLS are returned by readline() after the handshake, so the client treats them as the first responses on the protected channel. A network attacker who cannot break TLS can append forged lines after the server's OK, let the handshake complete with the real server and a valid certificate, and have the client accept the forged CAPABILITY and the forged tagged completion of the next command. This is the STARTTLS command/response injection class of CVE-2011-0411.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.3 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary6.3MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNACVSS6.3MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
Present
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
None
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Python Software Foundation CPython affected 3.16.0 python Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/python/cpython/pull/160370 [email protected] github.com
mail.python.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/LVAGFOFG26Q... [email protected] mail.python.org
github.com/python/cpython/issues/160369 [email protected] github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: digit50 (https://github.com/digit50) (en)

CNA: Jelle Zijlstra (https://github.com/JelleZijlstra) (en)

CNA: Hugo van Kemenade (https://github.com/hugovk) (en)

CNA: Seth Larson (https://github.com/sethmlarson) (en)

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