Commons EmailApplication · Apache
CVE-2018-1294
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 · uneditedIf a user of Apache Commons Email (typically an application programmer) passes unvalidated input as the so-called "Bounce Address", and that input contains line-breaks, then the email details (recipients, contents, etc.) might be manipulated. Mitigation: Users should upgrade to Commons-Email 1.5. You can mitigate this vulnerability for older versions of Commons Email by stripping line-breaks from data, that will be passed to Email.setBounceAddress(String).
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 confidenceApache Commons Email contains an email header injection vulnerability where unvalidated input containing line-breaks passed to the setBounceAddress() method allows manipulation of email headers, potentially affecting recipients and email contents.
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
Commons EmailApplication
>= 1.0, <= 1.4CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 Apache Commons Email dependencyExamine project build files (pom.xml, build.gradle, build.xml) or the lib/ directory for commons-email JAR files. Search dependency management configs for 'commons-email' or 'apache.commons.email'.Affected if The dependency exists and no version override is specified that would pull a fixed version.
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Determine installed versionLocate the commons-email JAR file and read its filename (e.g., commons-email-1.4.jar) or inspect the MANIFEST.MF file inside the JAR for the Implementation-Version. In Maven projects, run 'mvn dependency:tree' or 'mvn dependency:list' to resolve the actual version being used.Affected if The resolved version is 1.0 through 1.4 inclusive.
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Find setBounceAddress() usageSearch source code for calls to setBounceAddress method (case-insensitive search for 'setBounceAddress' or '.setBounceAddress('). Review all call sites to identify what input is passed to this method.Affected if The method is called with any input that originates from external sources, configuration files, or user-modifiable data.
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Check for input validation on bounce addressAt each setBounceAddress() call site, trace the input value back to its source. Examine the code between the input source and the setBounceAddress call for validation logic that strips or rejects line-break characters (\r, \n, CR, LF).Affected if No validation exists that explicitly removes or blocks line-break characters before passing data to setBounceAddress.
The environment is affected if Apache Commons Email version 1.4 or earlier is in use AND the setBounceAddress() method is called with external input that has not been validated to exclude line-break characters.
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 to Apache Commons Email 1.5 which includes input validation, or implement server-side input validation to strip line-break characters from any data passed to Email.setBounceAddress().
Fix this in Commons Email
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1294 — 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-2018-1294 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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- 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
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