Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in the Net::IMAP Ruby library, which implements IMAP client functionality. Prior to versions 0.6.5 and 0.5.15, certain Net::IMAP commands accept a "raw data" argument that is sent after validation intended to prevent command injection. However, if the IMAP server does not support non-synchronizing literals, it may interpret the data incorrectly, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary IMAP commands. This happens because the server may treat the end of a malformed command line as the end of a command and then interpret the literal contents as new commands, enabling a CRLF (Carriage Return Line Feed) command injection attack.

The affected commands include #search, #uid_search, #sort, #thread, #uid_sort, #uid_thread, #fetch, and #uid_fetch. The vulnerability was fixed in versions 0.6.5 and 0.5.15 of Net::IMAP.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow an attacker to perform command injection attacks against an IMAP server when using vulnerable versions of the Net::IMAP client library. By injecting arbitrary IMAP commands, an attacker could potentially manipulate or disrupt email operations, access unauthorized data, or cause denial of service conditions depending on the server's response to injected commands.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, upgrade the Net::IMAP library to version 0.6.5 or later, or 0.5.15 or later, where the issue has been fixed.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0