CVE-2021-39361
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 · uneditedIn GNOME evolution-rss through 0.3.96, network-soup.c does not enable TLS certificate verification on the SoupSessionSync objects it creates, leaving users vulnerable to network MITM attacks. NOTE: this is similar to CVE-2016-20011.
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 confidenceThe GNOME evolution-rss plugin (versions up to 0.3.96) fails to enable TLS certificate verification on SoupSessionSync objects in network-soup.c. This disables secure HTTPS connections, allowing attackers to intercept or modify network traffic via man-in-the-middle attacks.
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<= 0.3.96CVSS 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 evolution-rss plugin is installedQuery your package manager for the evolution-rss package. On Debian-based systems: dpkg -l | grep evolution-rss. On RHEL-based systems: rpm -qa | grep evolution-rss.Affected if The package is not installed or not found, the plugin is not in use.
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Determine installed version of evolution-rssRun: dpkg -l evolution-rss (Debian) or rpm -q evolution-rss (RHEL) to obtain the exact version number.Affected if Version is 0.3.96 or lower.
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Verify package version against affected rangeCompare the installed version number to the affected range: any version <= 0.3.96 is vulnerable.Affected if Installed version is 0.3.96 or any lower number.
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Check if RSS accounts are configured in EvolutionOpen GNOME Evolution, go to Edit > Preferences > Mail Accounts, or check for RSS account configurations in ~/.config/evolution/ or ~/.local/share/evolution/.Affected if RSS accounts exist and the vulnerable plugin version is in use.
If evolution-rss version 0.3.96 or lower is installed and RSS accounts are configured, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 evolution-rss version 0.3.97 or later, which implements proper TLS certificate validation. If unable to upgrade, avoid using the RSS plugin over untrusted networks.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2021-39361 — 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-2021-39361 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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