CVE-2021-38373

Publication date 10 August 2021

Last updated 21 July 2025

Ubuntu priority

Medium

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

5.3 · Medium

Score breakdown

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

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

ej7367

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
kmailtransport

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