CVE-2021-37845

Exp

An issue was discovered in Citadel through webcit-932. A meddler-in-the-middle attacker can fixate their own session during the cleartext phase before a STARTTLS command (a violation of "The STARTTLS command is only valid in non-authenticated state." in RFC2595). This potentially allows an attacker to cause a victim's e-mail messages to be stored into an attacker's IMAP mailbox, but depends on details of the victim's client behavior.

Published: 2023-05-29 Last update: 2025-01-14 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-37845 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Low severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.27%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2021-37845

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-37845

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 2026-06-09 0.46% 0.27% -0.19%
2 2026-05-31 0.37% 0.46% +0.09%
3 2026-05-30 0.37%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-37845

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.7 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 1.4 [email protected]
3.7 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 1.4 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-37845

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-37845

vendor priority summary link
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-37845 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (citadel), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 9, needs-triage 4, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-37845

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-37845

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
citadel webcit <= 932 cpe:2.3:a:citadel:webcit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-37845

cvelogic Threat Intelligence