CVE-2018-5170

It is possible to spoof the filename of an attachment and display an arbitrary attachment name. This could lead to a user opening a remote attachment which is a different file type than expected. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird ESR < 52.8 and Thunderbird < 52.8.

Published: 2018-06-11 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-5170 is rated Moderate Risk (43.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.88%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-5170

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-12-28 1.17% 0.88% -0.29%
2 2025-12-27 0.88% 1.17% +0.29%
3 2025-11-21 0.88%

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-5170

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-5170

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-5170

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-5170 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (thunderbird), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-5170
gentoo normal CVE-2018-5170: 1 GLSA(s) (201811-13), 2 atom(s) (mail-client/thunderbird, mail-client/thunderbird-bin); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-5170
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5170
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-5170 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (thunderbird), 5 status rows across 5 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-5170

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-5170

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_aus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_aus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.5 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_tus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_tus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla thunderbird < 52.8.0 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mozilla thunderbird_esr < 52.8.0 cpe:2.3:a:mozilla:thunderbird_esr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 17.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:17.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-5170

cvelogic Threat Intelligence