CVE-2026-118179VulnerabilityPublished 27 Oct 2026

Clicking a news: or snews: link that referenced a message-ID made Thunderbird connect, without asking, to the host and

Source GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-118179

Not known to be exploited · fixed in 153.6 : patch Thunderbird soon.

Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 22:14 UTC

Severity

High

Rated High by Threat Radar's AI analysis · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

Patch: Available – fixed in 153.6

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-gm4x-83qc-5rx5

What to do

AI-suggested

This vulnerability has been fixed in Thunderbird versions 159 and 153.6. Users and administrators should update to these versions or later to mitigate the risk. No additional mitigation steps are required as the fix addresses the root cause.

Description

A vulnerability in Thunderbird allowed clicking on news: or snews: links referencing a message-ID to cause the client to connect automatically to an attacker-specified host and port without user consent, even if the server was not configured. Line breaks in the message-ID were sent unmodified, enabling crafted links to send arbitrary commands to reachable services. Additionally, snews: links connected without TLS, exposing data to interception. This issue was fixed in Thunderbird versions 159 and 153.6.

Impact

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting news: or snews: links that cause Thunderbird to connect to arbitrary hosts and ports without user interaction. This could lead to unauthorized network connections and potentially allow sending arbitrary commands to internal services reachable from the user's network. The lack of TLS on snews: connections further increases the risk of interception or manipulation of the traffic.

References

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