CVE-2008-4491
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 · uneditedApple Mail.app 3.5 on Mac OS X, when "Store draft messages on the server" is enabled, stores draft copies of S/MIME email in plaintext on the email server, which allows server owners and remote man-in-the-middle attackers to read sensitive mail.
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 confidenceApple Mail.app 3.5 on Mac OS X stores S/MIME encrypted email drafts in plaintext on the email server when the 'Store draft messages on the server' feature is enabled, defeating end-to-end encryption and exposing sensitive content to server administrators or man-in-the-middle attackers.
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= 3.5CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/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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Verify Apple Mail version 3.5 is installedOpen Apple Mail, then go to Mail menu > About Apple Mail to display the version numberAffected if The version shown is exactly 3.5
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Confirm 'Store draft messages on the server' is enabledOpen Apple Mail > Preferences > Accounts tab, select your account, then look under the Account Information tab for the 'Store draft messages on the server' checkboxAffected if The checkbox is ticked/enabled
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Verify S/MIME encryption is configuredOpen Apple Mail > Preferences > Security tab, or check if S/MIME certificates are configured in the account settingsAffected if S/MIME signing or encryption is enabled for outgoing mail
You are affected if you are running Apple Mail version 3.5, have 'Store draft messages on the server' enabled, and use S/MIME encryption, as your encrypted drafts will be stored in plaintext on the server.
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 dataDisable the 'Store draft messages on the server' setting in Apple Mail preferences, or upgrade to a patched version of Apple Mail.app that properly handles S/MIME drafts.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-4491 — 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-2008-4491 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