CVE-2023-0616
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 a MIME email combines OpenPGP and OpenPGP MIME data in a certain way Thunderbird repeatedly attempts to process and display the message, which could cause Thunderbird's user interface to lock up and no longer respond to the user's actions. An attacker could send a crafted message with this structure to attempt a DoS attack. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 102.8.
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 denial of service vulnerability in Thunderbird allows attackers to craft a malicious MIME email combining OpenPGP and OpenPGP MIME data in a specific way that causes Thunderbird to repeatedly attempt processing the message, freezing the UI and making the application unresponsive.
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< 102.8CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 if Thunderbird is installedOn Windows, look in Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird. On macOS, check /Applications. On Linux, run 'which thunderbird' or check /usr/bin/thunderbird.Affected if Thunderbird is present on the system
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Determine installed Thunderbird versionOpen Thunderbird, go to Help > About Thunderbird. On Linux/macOS, run 'thunderbird --version' in terminal.Affected if Version is not displayed or cannot be retrieved
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Compare version against affected rangeCompare the installed version to the affected range: versions prior to 102.8 are vulnerable (e.g., 102.7.x, 102.6.x, 91.x, 78.x)Affected if Installed version is less than 102.8
A user is affected if Thunderbird version 102.8 or later is not installed, as the DoS triggers when Thunderbird attempts to process a malicious MIME email combining OpenPGP and OpenPGP MIME data.
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 · scoped102.8
Upgrade Thunderbird to version 102.8 or later. Consider email gateway filtering to detect and quarantine malformed MIME messages before delivery.
Thunderbird 102.8
- 1. Open Thunderbird application
- 2. Click on the menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner
- 3. Select 'Help' from the dropdown menu
- 4. Click on 'About Thunderbird'
- 5. The application will check for updates and prompt you to download version 102.8 or later
- 6. Click 'Update' to download and install the update
- 7. Restart Thunderbird to complete the installation
- 8. Alternatively, download Thunderbird 102.8 or later from the official Mozilla website at www.mozilla.org and reinstall
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2023-0616 — 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-2023-0616 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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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.
- 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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