CVE-2018-18513
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 · uneditedA crash can occur when processing a crafted S/MIME message or an XPI package containing a crafted signature. This can be used as a denial-of-service (DOS) attack because Thunderbird reopens the last seen message on restart, triggering the crash again. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.5.
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 confidenceA vulnerability in Thunderbird versions before 60.5 allows specially crafted S/MIME messages or XPI packages containing malformed signatures to trigger a crash. Because Thunderbird automatically reopens the last viewed message on restart, this creates a persistent denial-of-service condition.
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< 60.5.0CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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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Check Thunderbird versionOpen Thunderbird, go to Help > About Thunderbird, or run 'thunderbird --version' from command lineAffected if Version is below 60.5.0 (e.g., 60.4.0, 60.3.0, etc.)
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Verify S/MIME configurationGo to Account Settings > End-to-End Encryption in Thunderbird, check if S/MIME is enabled for any accountsAffected if S/MIME is enabled and the installed version is vulnerable
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Check for recent crashesLook in Thunderbird's crash reports at about:crashes or the profiles directory for .txt crash report files matching the timeframe of opening S/MIME messagesAffected if Crashes occurred after viewing S/MIME messages with the vulnerable version
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Inspect profile for last viewed messageCheck the prefs.js file in the profile folder for 'mailnews.scrollbar' or last message metadata that may indicate a message that triggered the crash on restartAffected if The last opened message was an S/MIME signed message and Thunderbird crashes on restart
User is affected if Thunderbird version is below 60.5.0 and S/MIME signed messages or XPI packages have been opened, resulting in persistent crashes.
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 data60.5.0
Upgrade Thunderbird to version 60.5 or later to obtain the patched version of the NSS library that properly handles malformed signature data.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-18513 — 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-2018-18513 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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