CVE-2022-4055 — When xdg-mail is configured to use thunderbird for mailto URLs, improper parsing

When xdg-mail is configured to use thunderbird for mailto URLs, improper parsing of the URL can lead to additional headers being passed to thunderbird that should not be included per RFC 2368. An attacker can use this method to create a mailto URL that looks safe to users, but wi

01What is this vulnerability?

When xdg-mail is configured to use thunderbird for mailto URLs, improper parsing of the URL can lead to additional headers being passed to thunderbird that should not be included per RFC 2368. An attacker can use this method to create a mailto URL that looks safe to users, but will actually attach files when clicked.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / xdg	utils — xdg-utils 1.1.0 to and including 1.1.3

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2022-11-18T00:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-04-29T18:55:59.428Z

09References

• gitlab.freedesktop.org — https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/-/issues/205#note_1494267