High
Security advisory
In GNOME Balsa before 2.6.0, a malicious server operator or man in the middle can trigger a NULL pointer dereference and client crash by sending a PREAUTH response to imap_mbox_connect in libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-16118
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 12:34 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
In GNOME Balsa before 2.6.0, a malicious server operator or man in the middle can trigger a NULL pointer dereference and client crash by sending a PREAUTH response to imap_mbox_connect in libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c.
osv:CVE-2020-16118
Complete source record
{
"id": "5fb733f64d6a0e44e785cf5c46617f46fe89277e16104c5d0bf435860ae603f1",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-16118",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2020-16118",
"summary": "In GNOME Balsa before 2.6.0, a malicious server operator or man in the middle can trigger a NULL pointer dereference and client crash by sending a PREAUTH response to imap_mbox_connect in libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2020-16118",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2020-16118",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2020-16118"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
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"ranges": [
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"type": "GIT",
"events": [
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{
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{
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"database_specific": {
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"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:gnome:balsa:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
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},
{
"fixed": "2.6.0"
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"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"range": [
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"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
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"2.5.8",
"2.5.7a",
"2.5.6",
"2.5.5",
"2.5.4",
"2.5.3a",
"BALSA_2_3_26",
"BALSA_2_3_24",
"BALSA_2_3_20",
"BALSA_2_3_19",
"BALSA_2_3_15",
"BALSA_2_3_13",
"BALSA_2_3_12",
"BALSA_2_3_10",
"BALSA_2_3_8",
"BALSA_2_3_7",
"BALSA_2_3_5",
"BALSA_2_3_4",
"BALSA_2_3_3",
"BALSA_2_3_2",
"BALSA_2_3_1",
"BALSA_2_3_0",
"BALSA_2_2_6",
"BALSA_2_2_5",
"BALSA_2_2_4",
"BALSA_2_2_2",
"BALSA_2_2_1",
"BALSA_2_1_91",
"BALSA_2_1_3",
"BALSA_2_1_2",
"BALSA_2_1_1",
"BALSA_2_0_13",
"BALSA_2_0_8",
"BALSA_2_0_9",
"before-new-toolbars",
"BALSA_1_4_1",
"BALSA_1_4_0",
"BALSA_1_3_6",
"BALSA_1_3_5",
"BALSA_1_3_4",
"BALSA_1_3_3",
"BALSA_1_3_0",
"BALSA_1_2_2",
"BALSA_1_2_0",
"BALSA_1_2_pre2",
"BALSA_1_1_7",
"GNOME_MEDIA_1_2_2",
"BALSA_1_1_4",
"BALSA_1_1_2",
"BALSA_1_1_1",
"BALSA_1_1_0",
"BALSA_1_0_0",
"GNOME_PRINT_0_24",
"balsa-0-9-5",
"dev_0_9_1",
"initial-BALSA-CONFIG",
"balsa-0-8",
"balsa-0_6_0",
"WITHXMHTML",
"GNOME0",
"release_tag"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2020-16118.json",
"vanir_signatures": [
{
"id": "CVE-2020-16118-65473ce8",
"digest": {
"length": 145,
"function_hash": "31836230078113631678238411961133440548"
},
"source": "https://gitlab.gnome.org/gnome/balsa@4e245d758e1c826a01080d40c22ca8706f0339e5",
"target": {
"file": "libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c",
"function": "ir_preauth"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2020-16118-b2320216",
"digest": {
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"function_hash": "293968677701453279845062206111635714870"
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"source": "https://gitlab.gnome.org/gnome/balsa@4e245d758e1c826a01080d40c22ca8706f0339e5",
"target": {
"file": "libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c",
"function": "imap_mbox_connect"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2020-16118-f4c4f08b",
"digest": {
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},
"source": "https://gitlab.gnome.org/gnome/balsa@4e245d758e1c826a01080d40c22ca8706f0339e5",
"target": {
"file": "libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Line",
"signature_version": "v1"
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],
"vanir_signatures_modified": "2026-10-20T13:52:01Z"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T13:52:01.293079612Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/balsa/-/commit/4e245d758e1c826a01080d40c22ca8706f0339e5",
"https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/balsa/-/issues/23"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:backports_sle:15.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "opensuse:backports_sle",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "15.0-sp1"
},
{
"last_affected": "15.0-sp1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
},
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "opensuse:leap",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "15.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "15.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-16118",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 388304,
"published_at": "2020-07-29T18:15:15+00:00"
}