CVE-2020-15646
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 an attacker intercepts Thunderbird's initial attempt to perform automatic account setup using the Microsoft Exchange autodiscovery mechanism, and the attacker sends a crafted response, then Thunderbird sends username and password over https to a server controlled by the attacker. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 68.10.0.
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 confidenceThunderbird's Microsoft Exchange autodiscovery mechanism fails to properly validate server identity during automatic account setup, allowing an attacker performing a man-in-the-middle attack to redirect the client's connection to a malicious server and capture transmitted credentials.
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< 68.10.0CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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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Check if Thunderbird is installedOn Windows, check for Thunderbird in Program Files or via the About dialog (Help > About Thunderbird). On Linux, run 'which thunderbird' or check /usr/bin/thunderbird. On macOS, check /Applications for Thunderbird.app.Affected if Thunderbird is not installed on the system
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Determine the installed Thunderbird versionOpen Thunderbird, go to Help > About Thunderbird. The version number will be displayed (e.g., 68.9.0). Alternatively, check the program file properties or use command line: thunderbird --versionAffected if The installed version is less than 68.10.0
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Identify if automatic account setup (autodiscovery) is in useIn Thunderbird, go to Account Settings. Check each email account's Server Settings. Look for whether the server was configured automatically via autodiscovery, or manually entered by the user.Affected if Accounts were configured using automatic/autodiscovered settings rather than manual configuration
A user is affected if Thunderbird version is below 68.10.0 AND they have used automatic account setup to configure their email accounts.
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 data68.10.0
Upgrade Thunderbird to version 68.10.0 or later. Until upgraded, users should avoid using automatic account setup and manually configure their email accounts.
- Consultation2.0 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-2020-15646 — 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-2020-15646 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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