CVE-2024-49393 | Mutt: neomutt: to and cc email header fields are not protected by cryptographic signing

In neomutt and mutt, the To and Cc email headers are not validated by cryptographic signing which allows an attacker that intercepts a message to change their value and include himself as a one of the recipients to compromise message confidentiality.

Published: 2024-11-12 Last update: 2025-07-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-49393 is rated Low Risk (31.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2024-49393

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 2025-08-08 0.03% 0.05% +0.02%
2 2025-03-17 0.09% 0.03% -0.06%
3 2024-11-12 — 0.09% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-49393

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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: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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.2 4.2 [email protected]
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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-49393

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-49393

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2024-49393 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (mutt, neomutt), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 7, resolved 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-49393
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-49393
suse medium CVE-2024-49393 severity moderate: SUSE including 7 source package names (mutt, mutt-doc, …), 71 product×package rows across 30 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP5, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS, … (30 product lines)): Will Not Fix 67, Fixed 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-49393/
ubuntu low CVE-2024-49393 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (mutt, neomutt), 17 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): ignored 10, released 4, not-affected 2, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-49393

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-49393

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mutt mutt — cpe:2.3:a:mutt:mutt:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
neomutt neomutt — cpe:2.3:a:neomutt:neomutt:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-49393

cvelogic Threat Intelligence