CVE-2021-39272

Fetchmail before 6.4.22 fails to enforce STARTTLS session encryption in some circumstances, such as a certain situation with IMAP and PREAUTH.

Published: 2021-08-30 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-39272 is rated Moderate Risk (43.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.90%). 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-2021-39272

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 2026-06-15 0.18% 0.90% +0.71%
2 2025-09-27 0.11% 0.18% +0.07%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.11% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-39272

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.2 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-39272

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-39272

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2021-39272: 1 source package rows (fetchmail); 11 state rows across 9 repos (3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 4. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-39272
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-39272 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (fetchmail), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-39272
gentoo low CVE-2021-39272: 1 GLSA(s) (202209-14), 1 atom(s) (net-mail/fetchmail); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-39272
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-39272
suse medium CVE-2021-39272 severity moderate: SUSE including 14 source package names (fetchmail, fetchmail-6.3.26-13.15.1, …), 51 product×package rows across 33 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (33 product lines)): Fixed 48, Will Not Fix 3. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-39272/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-39272 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (fetchmail), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 3, needed 2, DNE 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-39272

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-39272

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
fetchmail fetchmail < 6.4.22 cpe:2.3:a:fetchmail:fetchmail:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-39272

cvelogic Threat Intelligence