CVE-2020-27748
xdg-utils: local file inclusion vulnerability
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · February 5, 2020
Updated · November 22, 2025
Description
A flaw was found in the xdg-email component of xdg-utils-1.1.0-rc1 and newer. When handling mailto: URIs, xdg-email allows attachments to be discreetly added via the URI when being passed to Thunderbird. An attacker could potentially send a victim a URI that automatically attaches a sensitive file to a new email. If a victim user does not notice that an attachment was added and sends the email, this could result in sensitive information disclosure. It has been confirmed that the code behind this issue is in xdg-email and not in Thunderbird.
Statement
This flaw is out of support scope for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7. Please see https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/ for more details.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
To mitigate this flaw, either:
- Do not use mailto links at all
- Always double-check in the user interface that there are no unwanted attachments before sending emails; especially when the email originates from clicking a mailto link.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 6.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CWE-201 · Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data