CVE-2025-7962 is a vulnerability identified in Jakarta Mail version 2.0.2, a widely used Java library maintained by the Eclipse Foundation for handling email functionalities. The root cause is improper neutralization of input terminators (CWE-147), specifically the failure to correctly handle carriage return (\r) and line feed (\n) UTF-8 characters within SMTP commands. This flaw enables an attacker to perform SMTP injection by inserting these characters to separate or inject additional SMTP messages. SMTP injection can allow attackers to manipulate the mail sending process, potentially sending unauthorized emails, spamming, or bypassing mail filters. The vulnerability requires network access and low privileges but does not require user interaction. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates network attack vector (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), no privileges required (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), and partial impact on confidentiality and integrity (VC:N, VI:H). No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects Jakarta Mail 2.0.2, but the absence of affectedVersions data suggests further clarification is needed. The issue is critical for applications that rely on Jakarta Mail for SMTP communication, as it could lead to unauthorized email injection and potential abuse of mail infrastructure.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the confidentiality and integrity of email communications. Exploitation could allow attackers to send unauthorized emails, potentially leading to phishing campaigns, spam distribution, or spoofing attacks originating from trusted infrastructure. This can damage organizational reputation, lead to data leakage, or facilitate further attacks such as credential harvesting. Availability impact is limited but could occur if mail servers are overwhelmed by injected messages. Organizations using Jakarta Mail in critical communication systems, customer notification services, or internal messaging platforms are particularly vulnerable. Given the medium CVSS score and the requirement for network access with low privileges, attackers with foothold inside the network or those able to reach exposed SMTP services could exploit this vulnerability. European entities with strict data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR) may face compliance risks if email integrity is compromised. The lack of known exploits currently reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the need for proactive mitigation.

1. Monitor official Eclipse Foundation channels for patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-7962 and apply them promptly once available. 2. Implement strict input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data that is passed to Jakarta Mail SMTP commands, specifically filtering out or encoding carriage return and line feed characters to prevent injection. 3. Restrict network access to SMTP services using Jakarta Mail to trusted hosts and networks, employing firewall rules and segmentation to reduce exposure. 4. Deploy anomaly detection and logging on SMTP traffic to identify unusual patterns indicative of injection attempts, such as unexpected message boundaries or multiple commands in a single session. 5. Review and harden mail server configurations to reject malformed SMTP commands and enforce strict protocol compliance. 6. Educate developers and administrators about secure coding practices related to email handling and the risks of injection vulnerabilities. 7. Consider using application-layer gateways or proxies that can sanitize SMTP traffic before it reaches Jakarta Mail components. 8. Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on email infrastructure to detect potential exploitation vectors.