ThunderbirdApplication · Mozilla

CVE-2022-2226

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 91.11 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 · unedited
An OpenPGP digital signature includes information about the date when the signature was created. When displaying an email that contains a digital signature, the email's date will be shown. If the dates were different, then Thunderbird didn't report the email as having an invalid signature. If an attacker performed a replay attack, in which an old email with old contents are resent at a later time, it could lead the victim to believe that the statements in the email are current. Fixed versions of Thunderbird will require that the signature's date roughly matches the displayed date of the email. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 102 and Thunderbird < 91.11.

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 confidence

Thunderbird's OpenPGP signature validation did not verify that the signature creation date matched the email's displayed date, allowing attackers to resend old signed emails (replay attack) with current timestamps, misleading recipients into believing the statements are current.

MitigationUpdate Thunderbird to version 102 or later (or version 91.11 for Extended Support Release branches).

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
ThunderbirdApplication
Affected:< 91.11= 101.0

CVSS 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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed Thunderbird version
    Open Thunderbird, go to Help > About Thunderbird, or run 'thunderbird --version' from command line to get the exact version number
    Affected if Version is less than 91.11 or equals 101.0 exactly
  2. Confirm OpenPGP is in use
    Check Thunderbird account settings: go to Settings > Privacy & Security > End-to-End Encryption and verify OpenPGP is enabled, or look for OpenPGP keys configured in the built-in OpenPGP module or third-party add-ons
    Affected if OpenPGP encryption or signing is enabled for any email account
  3. Verify signature date validation behavior
    Receive or import an older signed email and compare the email's Date header (displayed timestamp) against the signature's actual creation date using an OpenPGP key viewer or signature details panel
    Affected if Thunderbird shows the signature as valid without flagging any mismatch between the email Date header and signature creation timestamp

Environment is affected if Thunderbird version is below 91.11 or exactly 101.0 and OpenPGP signature validation is actively used on emails.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 91.11 or later
Fixed in 91.11
Interim mitigation

Update Thunderbird to version 102 or later (or version 91.11 for Extended Support Release branches).

Recommended fix High confidence

Thunderbird 91.11 (ESR) or Thunderbird 102.x (current stable)

  1. Backup your Thunderbird profile and any local email data
  2. Download Thunderbird 91.11 (for the 91.x ESR branch) or Thunderbird 102.x (for the current release branch) from the official Mozilla website (www.mozilla.org)
  3. Close Thunderbird completely if currently running
  4. Install the updated Thunderbird version over the existing installation, or to a new location
  5. Launch Thunderbird and verify that your email accounts and settings are intact
  6. Test OpenPGP signed emails to confirm the date validation is now working correctly
Caveat Minimal risk; upgrade is a standard version update within the same major release train

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Thunderbird Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-2226 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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