Netscape Mail Notification Plaintext Credential Disclosure
Moderate risk. Patch during routine maintenance and watch for changes in exploit activity.
An unauthenticated attacker, remotely over the network, can cause limited impact to confidentiality.
Netscape Mail Notification (nsnotify) utility in Netscape Communicator uses IMAP without SSL, even if the user has set a preference for Communicator to use an SSL connection, allowing a remote attacker to sniff usernames and passwords in plaintext.
Inferred from the weakness type (CWE) and how the flaw is reached — the techniques an attacker would chain to exploit this. Real-world corroboration appears here as threat intel is folded in.
Generated by Wavense from the CVE record — an immediate mitigation and the permanent fix.
Users should avoid using Netscape Mail Notification (nsnotify) and Netscape Communicator on untrusted networks until a permanent fix is applied. Implement network-level encryption, such as a Mandatory VPN, for all client-to-mail server communications to ensure traffic is always encrypted. Additionally, monitor network traffic for unencrypted IMAP login attempts originating from Netscape Communicator clients to detect potential sniffing attempts.
The permanent resolution is to upgrade Netscape Communicator to a version that correctly enforces SSL/TLS for IMAP connections when configured. Alternatively, users should transition to a modern, secure email client that reliably encrypts all mail protocols. Consult Netscape's official documentation or vendor advisories for specific patch releases or recommended upgrade paths that address this vulnerability.
A remote attacker can intercept usernames and passwords in plaintext when the nsnotify utility fetches mail via IMAP, even if the user has configured SSL. This allows unauthorized access to user email accounts and potentially other services if credentials are reused, leading to data breaches and privacy compromise. The business consequences include reputational damage, loss of trust, and potential regulatory fines.
No CWE classification has been assigned.
Other CVEs affecting communicator
Apache Log4j2 2.0-beta9 through 2.15.0 (excluding security releases 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1) JNDI features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message parameters can execute arbitrary code loaded from LDAP servers when message lookup substitution is enabled. From log4j 2.15.0, this behavior has been disabled by default. From version 2.16.0 (along with 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1), this functionality has been completely removed. Note that this vulnerability is specific to log4j-core and does not affect log4net, log4cxx, or other Apache Logging Services projects.
It was found that the fix to address CVE-2021-44228 in Apache Log4j 2.15.0 was incomplete in certain non-default configurations. This could allows attackers with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data when the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with either a Context Lookup (for example, $${ctx:loginId}) or a Thread Context Map pattern (%X, %mdc, or %MDC) to craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern resulting in an information leak and remote code execution in some environments and local code execution in all environments. Log4j 2.16.0 (Java 8) and 2.12.2 (Java 7) fix this issue by removing support for message lookup patterns and disabling JNDI functionality by default.
Netscape Communicator before 4.77 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary Javascript via a GIF image whose comment contains the Javascript.
Buffer overflow in the HTML parser for Netscape 4.75 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a long password value in a form field.
Netscape Communicator does not properly prevent a ServerSocket object from being created by untrusted entities, which allows remote attackers to create a server on the victim's system via a malicious applet, as demonstrated by Brown Orifice.
Buffer overflow in Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.7 for Windows 95 and Windows 98 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service, and possibly execute arbitrary commands, via a long argument after the ? character in a URL that references an .asp, .cgi, .html, or .pl file.
Netscape Communicator 4.04 through 4.7 (and possibly other versions) in various UNIX operating systems converts the 0x8b character to a "<" sign, and the 0x9b character to a ">" sign, which could allow remote attackers to attack other clients via cross-site scripting (CSS) in CGI programs that do not filter these characters.