CVE-2021-38373

Publication date 10 August 2021

Last updated 21 July 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

In KDE KMail 19.12.3 (aka 5.13.3), the SMTP STARTTLS option is not honored (and cleartext messages are sent) unless "Server requires authentication" is checked.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
kmail	25.04 plucky	Not affected
	24.10 oracular	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	23.10 mantic	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	23.04 lunar	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	22.10 kinetic	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	21.10 impish	Ignored end of life
	21.04 hirsute	Ignored end of life
	20.04 LTS focal	Not affected
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not in release
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not in release
ksmtp	25.04 plucky	Not affected
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	20.04 LTS focal	Ignored changes too intrusive
	18.04 LTS bionic	Ignored changes too intrusive
kmailtransport	25.04 plucky	Not affected
	24.04 LTS noble	Not affected
	22.04 LTS jammy	Not affected
	20.04 LTS focal	Ignored changes too intrusive
	18.04 LTS bionic	Ignored changes too intrusive
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected

Notes

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The vulnerable code is in ksmtp. The upstream patches for ksmtp break ABI, requiring a patch for kmailtransport as well.

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
ksmtp	Upstream: b33f063 Upstream: 38a4c09 Upstream: 60f73c6 Upstream: 77a3660 Upstream: 5d96c21
kmailtransport	Upstream: b49ee72

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	5.3 · Medium
Attack vector	Network
Attack complexity	High
Privileges required	Low
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	High
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	None
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N