Lotus NotesApplication · Ibm

CVE-2000-1138

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2001-01-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.0.5 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Lotus Notes R5 client R5.0.5 and earlier does not properly warn users when an S/MIME email message has been modified, which could allow an attacker to modify the email in transit without being detected.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Lotus Notes R5 client versions R5.0.5 and earlier fail to properly validate and warn users when S/MIME signed email messages have been modified in transit, allowing attackers to alter email content without detection by the recipient.

MitigationUpgrade from Lotus Notes R5 to a supported version that properly validates S/MIME signatures, or migrate to a modern email client with correct S/MIME integrity checking.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Lotus NotesApplication
Affected:<= 5.0.5= 5.0= 5.0.1= 5.0.2= 5.0.3= 5.0.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Lotus Notes version
    Open Lotus Notes and go to Help > About IBM Lotus Notes, or check the version displayed on the login screen. Alternatively, check the program files folder or installation media for version information.
    Affected if The installed version is R5.0.5 or any earlier R5.x release (R5.0, R5.0.1, R5.0.2, R5.0.3, R5.0.4)
  2. Confirm Lotus Notes product line
    Verify that the affected software is indeed IBM Lotus Notes R5 client and not a different product or version line.
    Affected if The software is IBM Lotus Notes R5 client specifically
  3. Determine S/MIME usage in the environment
    Review whether the organization or correspondents send and receive S/MIME signed email messages. Check email client settings or ask email correspondents if they use S/MIME signing.
    Affected if S/MIME signed emails are received or processed by the Lotus Notes client
  4. Check S/MIME signature validation behavior
    Send or receive a test S/MIME signed email and intentionally modify the message content after signing. Observe whether Lotus Notes displays any integrity warning or validation error.
    Affected if The client does not warn of signature invalidity when S/MIME signed content is modified

You are affected if you are running Lotus Notes R5.0.5 or earlier AND your environment processes S/MIME signed email messages, as the client will fail to detect modifications to signed content.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.0.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade from Lotus Notes R5 to a supported version that properly validates S/MIME signatures, or migrate to a modern email client with correct S/MIME integrity checking.

Fix this in Lotus Notes Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,960.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-1138 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2000-1138 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data