CVE-2022-26491 [Medium] | Spoofing in Pidgin

An issue was discovered in Pidgin before 2.14.9. A remote attacker who can spoof DNS responses can redirect a client connection to a malicious server. The client will perform TLS certificate verification of the malicious domain name instead of the original XMPP service domain, allowing the attacker to take over control over the XMPP connection and to obtain user credentials and all communication content. This is similar to CVE-2022-24968.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.82%	2.36%	+1.54%
2	2026-06-01	1.20%	0.82%	-0.39%
3	2026-01-14	—	1.20%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.82%

2.36%

+1.54%

2026-06-01

1.20%

0.82%

-0.39%

2026-01-14

—

1.20%

—

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]

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]

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-26491

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	medium	CVE-2022-26491: 1 source package rows (pidgin); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 0.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-26491
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2022-26491 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pidgin), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-26491
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-26491
`suse`	high	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-26491/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2022-26491 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pidgin), 14 status rows across 14 suites (bionic, focal, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8, ignored 6.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-26491

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-26491

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
pidgin	pidgin	< 2.14.9	cpe:2.3:a:pidgin:pidgin::::::::
debian	debian_linux	9.0	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:::::::*

References for CVE-2022-26491

URL	Tags
https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/FullChangeLog	Release Notes Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/xsf/xeps/pull/1158	Patch Third Party Advisory
https://keep.imfreedom.org/pidgin/pidgin/rev/13cdb7956bdc	Patch Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/06/msg00005.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/standards/2022-February/038759.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://pidgin.im/about/security/advisories/cve-2022-26491/	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2022-26491

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-26491

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-26491

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-26491

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-26491

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-26491

References for CVE-2022-26491