CVE-2023-46116 | Remote Code Execution via insufficiently sanitized call to shell.openExternal

Exp

Tutanota (Tuta Mail) is an encrypted email provider. Tutanota allows users to open links in emails in external applications. Prior to version 3.118.12, it correctly blocks the `file:` URL scheme, which can be used by malicious actors to gain code execution on a victims computer, however fails to check other harmful schemes such as `ftp:`, `smb:`, etc. which can also be used. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability will enable an attacker to gain code execution on a victim's computer. Version 3.118.2 contains a patch for this issue.

Published: 2023-12-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-46116 is rated High Exploit Risk (75.8/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.26%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2023-46116

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-46116

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 0.66% 1.26% +0.59%
2 2026-03-22 0.87% 0.66% -0.20%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.87% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-46116

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.3 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 5.8 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-46116

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-46116

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
tuta tutanota < 3.118.12 cpe:2.3:a:tuta:tutanota:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2023-46116

cvelogic Threat Intelligence