CVE-2003-0728
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 · uneditedHorde before 2.2.4 allows remote malicious web sites to steal session IDs and read or create arbitrary email by stealing the ID from a referrer URL.
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 confidenceHorde before 2.2.4 leaks session IDs in HTTP Referrer headers when users navigate from the webmail application to external websites. Attackers hosting malicious sites can capture these exposed session IDs from the referrer URL and use them to hijack authenticated sessions, enabling unauthorized access to read or create arbitrary emails.
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<= 2.2.4CVSS 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
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if Horde webmail is installedLocate the Horde application directory or check for the presence of Horde webmail files on the web server. Common locations include /horde, /webmail, or within the web document root.Affected if Horde webmail is present on the system and accessible via HTTP/HTTPS
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Determine the installed Horde versionExamine the Horde version file, such as VERSION, lib/version.php, or the package metadata. Compare the version number to the affected range of 2.2.4 and below.Affected if The installed Horde version is 2.2.4 or any earlier version (2.2.x, 2.1.x, 2.0.x, 1.x)
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Verify session handling is enabledCheck if Horde session management is active by reviewing the configuration file (typically config/conf.php or similar) for session-related settings such as $session_disable, $use_sessions, or session.save_path.Affected if Session handling is enabled and users authenticate to access webmail
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Confirm the application serves as a webmail gatewayVerify that the Horde installation is configured as a webmail application that handles email composition, reading, and sending. Check for IMP (Horde IMP) integration or webmail-related modules.Affected if Horde is configured as a webmail application allowing users to send and receive emails
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Inspect referrer header configurationReview the web server configuration (Apache, nginx, etc.) and Horde application settings for any directives controlling HTTP Referrer header behavior. Look for settings related to privacy, referrer logging, or URL rewriting.Affected if No referrer stripping or redaction is configured for outbound requests when users navigate to external sites
You are affected if Horde webmail version 2.2.4 or earlier is installed, session handling is enabled, and no server-side or application-level mechanism is in place to strip session IDs from outbound HTTP Referrer headers.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade Horde to version 2.2.4 or later. As a workaround, configure the web server to strip or redact session identifiers from outbound referrer headers, or implement session token rotation after authentication.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0728 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2003-0728 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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