CVE-2026-102471: CRLF header injection in vertx-mail-client allows manipulation of outgoing SMTP messages

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.9 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-14 · updated 2026-10-20
Weakness: CWE-93

Description

In Eclipse Vert.x versions [4.0.0, 4.5.34] or [5.0.0,5.0.12] or [5.1.0,5.1.9] or [5.2.0, 5.2.0], the vertx-mail-client does not sanitize CR (\r) or LF (\n) characters in user-supplied email header names and values before writing them into the SMTP DATA section. A CR/LF sequence embedded in a name or value passed to MailMessage.addHeader(), MailMessage.setHeaders(), MailAttachment.addHeader(), or MailAttachment.setHeaders() is written verbatim to the wire, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary headers (e.g. Bcc, Reply-To, Content-Type) or prepend body content to the outgoing message. The same weakness affects MIME part metadata set via MailAttachment.setContentType(), setDisposition(), setDescription(), and setContentId(), which are written directly into MIME part headers without validation. A secondary weakness in Utils.mustEncode(char) additionally allows a bare LF in a From display-name to bypass Q-encoding and reach the wire unchanged. An unauthenticated attacker who can control any header name, header value, or attachment metadata field passed to the mail client (for example via a web form or API that feeds into MailMessage) can exploit this to redirect email copies, spoof headers, or tamper with message structure. The impacted component is io.vertx:vertx-mail-client.

Affected products

Eclipse Foundation Eclipse Vert.x: from 4.5.0 before 4.5.35; from 5.0.0 before 5.1.10; 5.2.0 — fixed in 4.5.35, 5.1.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Eclipse Foundation Eclipse Vert.x 4.5.35, 5.1.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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