CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-9488 — Improper validation of certificate with host mismatch in Apache Log4j SMTP appender

Medium CVSS 4.3

Improper validation of certificate with host mismatch in Apache Log4j SMTP appender. This could allow an SMTPS connection to be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle attack which could leak any log messages sent through that appender. Fixed in Apache Log4j 2.12.3 and 2.13.1

Severity
Medium
CVSS
4.3 (2.0)
Published
2020-04-27
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
java/maven
Weaknesses
CWE-295

Affected products

  • apache / log4j
  • oracle / communications_application_session_controller / 3.9m0p1
  • oracle / communications_billing_and_revenue_management / 7.5.0.23.0
  • oracle / communications_billing_and_revenue_management / 12.0.0.3.0
  • oracle / communications_eagle_ftp_table_base_retrieval / 4.5
  • oracle / communications_offline_mediation_controller / 12.0.0.3.0

Showing 6 representative product identities from 101 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Cryptography, certificate, signature, and channel validation

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Inventory affected algorithms, key uses, trust stores, certificate validation settings, random sources, and plaintext channels across clients and services.
  • Determine which secrets, identities, signatures, or data protections depend on the affected primitive or validation path.
  • Check debug, compatibility, fallback, and hostname or audience override settings in build and runtime configuration.

Remediate safely

  • Use a maintained platform cryptographic API with approved algorithms, modes, parameters, randomness, and full peer identity validation.
  • Remove insecure fallback and validation bypasses; separate keys by purpose and load them from managed secret storage.
  • Plan rotation or reissuance for affected keys, certificates, tokens, hashes, or ciphertext and document compatibility sequencing.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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