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Fencer Intel
high 8.1

CVE-2018-20436 json

The "secret chat" feature in Telegram 4.9.1 for Android has a "side channel" in which Telegram servers send GET requests for URLs typed whi…

published 7y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-12991

cvss
8.1
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.6%
EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The "secret chat" feature in Telegram 4.9.1 for Android has a "side channel" in which Telegram servers send GET requests for URLs typed while composing a chat message, before that chat message is sent. There are also GET requests to other URLs on the same web server. This also affects one or more other Telegram products, such as Telegram Web-version 0.7.0. In addition, it can be interpreted as an SSRF issue. NOTE: a third party has reported that potentially unwanted behavior is caused by misconfiguration of the "Secret chats > Preview links" setting

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Exploit prediction

1.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • misteralfa-hack.blogspot.com https://misteralfa-hack.blogspot.com/2018/12/abusando-de-telegram-para-conseguir-una.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • misteralfa-hack.blogspot.com https://misteralfa-hack.blogspot.com/2018/12/telegram-siempre-in-middle.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 8.1 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-918 Server-Side Request Forgery

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.