CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2021-31855 — KDE Messagelib through 5.17.0 reveals cleartext of encrypted messages in some situations
KDE Messagelib through 5.17.0 reveals cleartext of encrypted messages in some situations. Deleting an attachment of a decrypted encrypted message stored on a remote server (e.g., an IMAP server) causes KMail to upload the decrypted content of the message to the remote server. With a crafted message, a user could be tricked into decrypting an encrypted message and then deleting an attachment attached to this message. If the attacker has access to the messages stored on the email server, then the attacker could read the decrypted content of the encrypted message. This occurs in ViewerPrivate::deleteAttachment in messageviewer/src/viewer/viewer_p.cpp.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.5 (3.1)
- Published
- 2021-06-02
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- software/application
- Weaknesses
- CWE-312
Affected products
- kde / messagelib
Matched remediation archetype
General vulnerability remediation
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Confirm the affected component, deployment paths, reachable interfaces, and enabled features from inventories and configuration, without probing production destructively.
- Compare the advisory's affected conditions with the repository lockfiles, build manifests, artifacts, and runtime inventory.
- Identify data sensitivity, trust boundaries, and privilege level for every confirmed affected deployment.
Remediate safely
- Apply a vendor-supported fix or remove the affected component or feature; record the selected change and its source in the repository.
- Update direct and transitive dependency locks, generated artifacts, deployment manifests, and asset inventories together.
- Add a regression test for the documented unsafe condition using inert inputs and preserve rollback instructions.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.