CVE-2022-3155
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 · uneditedWhen saving or opening an email attachment on macOS, Thunderbird did not set attribute com.apple.quarantine on the received file. If the received file was an application and the user attempted to open it, then the application was started immediately without asking the user to confirm. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 102.3.
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 fails to set the macOS com.apple.quarantine extended attribute on saved email attachments. This bypasses macOS's built-in security mechanism that normally prompts users before executing downloaded applications, allowing malicious attachments to run without user confirmation.
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< 102.3CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 if Thunderbird is installedOpen Terminal and run: ls /Applications/Thunderbird.app or which thunderbirdAffected if Thunderbird is present on the system
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Identify the installed Thunderbird versionRun: /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird -v or right-click Thunderbird in Applications > Get Info to view the version numberAffected if The version number is less than 102.3 (for example, 102.2, 102.1, 91.x, etc.)
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Confirm the operating system is macOSRun: uname -s in Terminal, or check System Information > Operating System NameAffected if The system is macOS (the com.apple.quarantine attribute is a macOS-specific feature)
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Verify the quarantine attribute behavior (optional confirmation)Save any email attachment to a test folder, then run: xattr -l <filename> in Terminal to list extended attributes. Look for 'com.apple.quarantine' in the outputAffected if The com.apple.quarantine attribute is NOT present on saved attachments (on affected versions)
A user is affected if they are running Thunderbird version 102.2 or earlier on macOS, where saved email attachments will not have the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute that triggers macOS security prompts before execution.
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.
dbcve · scoped102.3
Upgrade Thunderbird to version 102.3 or later which properly sets the quarantine attribute on attachments.
Thunderbird 102.3 or later
- 1. Check current Thunderbird version by clicking Thunderbird > About Thunderbird in the menu bar
- 2. If the version is below 102.3, download Thunderbird 102.3 or later from the official Mozilla Thunderbird website (www.thunderbird.net)
- 3. Run the installer and follow the prompts to upgrade Thunderbird
- 4. After installation, verify the version by checking Thunderbird > About Thunderbird to confirm version 102.3 or higher is installed
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2022-3155 — 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-2022-3155 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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