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critical 9.8

CVE-2019-11703 in the critical feed json

A flaw in Thunderbird's implementation of iCal causes a heap buffer overflow in parser_get_next_char when processing certain email messages…

published 7y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-3373

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
10.5%
EPSS 10.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 95%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

A flaw in Thunderbird's implementation of iCal causes a heap buffer overflow in parser_get_next_char when processing certain email messages, resulting in a potentially exploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 60.7.1.

Patch / fix

  • Mozilla Thunderbird 60.7.1
  • thunderbird Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:60.7.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-11703

  • thunderbird Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:60.7.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:60.7.1+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-11703

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • thunderbird RHEL 8 60.7.2-2.el8_0
  • thunderbird RHEL 7 60.7.2-2.el7_6
  • thunderbird RHEL 6 60.7.2-2.el6_10

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:1623RHSA-2019:1626RHSA-2019:1624

  • MozillaThunderbird SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP1, SLE Workstation Extension 15 60.7.2-3.43.1
  • MozillaThunderbird SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP1, SLE Workstation Extension 15 60.7.0-3.36.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:1683-1SUSE-SU-2019:1495-1

  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Tumbleweed 91.1.1-1.1
  • MozillaThunderbird Package Hub 12 60.7.2-85.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 60.7.2-lp151.2.7.1
  • MozillaThunderbird openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 60.7.0-lp151.2.4.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10601-1openSUSE-SU-2019:1664-1openSUSE-SU-2019:1606-1openSUSE-SU-2019:1583-1

  • thunderbird Arch Linux 60.7.1-1

arch linux advisories AVG-980

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-11703 updated cvss 9.8

libical: Heap buffer over read in icalparser.c parser_get_next_char

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libical
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el8_0
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1623
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el7_6
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1626
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1624
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el7_6
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1626
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1624
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el7_6
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1626
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el6_10
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1624
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) thunderbird 60.7.2-2.el7_6
    fixed: vendor fix “Thunderbird can be configured to use icaljs instead of libical by setting `calendar.icaljs = true` in preferences, mitigating this vulnerability.” RHSA-2019:1626
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libical, libical-glib, compat-libical1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libical
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-47003)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

10.53% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 95% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-47003 Thunderbird ESR < 60.7.XXX - 'parser_get_next_char' Heap-Based Buffer Overflow dos, 2019-06-17
  • bugzilla.mozilla.org https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1553820 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • Mozilla Thunderbird

Classification

Weakness

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.