If Thunderbird is configured to use STARTTLS for an IMAP server, and the server sends a PREAUTH response, then Thunderbird will continue with an unencrypted connection, causing email data to be sent without protection. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 68.9.0.
CVE-2020-12398
This high-severity CVE scores 7.5 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 1.0%, top 42% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.5
- EG Score
- 7.5(medium)
- EG Risk
- 39(Track)EG Risk 39/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity75% × 45%Exploitation1% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 1%
- EPSS %ILE
- 61%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
July 9, 2020
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (6)
- security@mozillahttps://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1613623
- security@mozillahttps://usn.ubuntu.com/4421-1/
- security@mozillahttps://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2020-22/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1613623
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://usn.ubuntu.com/4421-1/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://www.mozilla.org/security/advisories/mfsa2020-22/
Patch Availability(6)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | xul-ext-lightning (1:68.10.0+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) @ xenial | 2026-05-27 | ubuntu |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:68.9.0-1.el7_8 | 2020-06-22 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:68.9.0-1.el8_2 | 2020-06-22 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:68.9.0-1.el6_10 | 2020-06-19 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:68.9.0-1.el8_0 | 2020-06-19 | redhat |
| redhat | thunderbird-0:68.9.0-1.el8_1 | 2020-06-19 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(7 across 7 ecosystems)
Debian:10(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | 1:60.7.2-1 ... 1:68.9.0-1~deb9u1 (52 versions) | 1:68.9.0-1~deb10u1 | — |
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | — | 1:68.9.0-1 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | — | 1:68.9.0-1 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | — | 1:68.9.0-1 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | — | 1:68.9.0-1 | — |
Debian:8(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | 1.5-4 ... 1:68.9.0-1~deb8u1 (132 versions) | 1:68.9.0-1~deb8u2 | — |
Debian:9(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| thunderbird | 1.5-4 ... 1:68.9.0-1~deb8u2 (133 versions) | 1:68.9.0-1~deb9u1 | — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(6)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2611IMPORTANT2020-06-02
RHSA-2020:2611 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2613IMPORTANT2020-06-02
RHSA-2020:2613 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2614IMPORTANT2020-06-02
RHSA-2020:2614 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2615IMPORTANT2020-06-02
RHSA-2020:2615 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2616IMPORTANT2020-06-02
RHSA-2020:2616 — Important
- UbuntuUSN-4421-1MEDIUM
Thunderbird vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 26× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 154 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-19 15:37 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-17 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-16 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-16 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-13 16:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-12 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 14:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 09:32 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-07 07:18 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-05 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 13:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-02 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-01 03:32 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 01:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-27 14:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-25 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:51 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-20 17:01 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-17 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-09 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 10:41 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-03 10:32 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 01:48 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:33 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 09:22 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2020-12398?
When was CVE-2020-12398 disclosed?
Is CVE-2020-12398 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-12398?
How do I remediate CVE-2020-12398?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-12398
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2020-12398?
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