CVE-2021-44538

thunderbird: The olm_session_describe function in Matrix libolm before 3.2.7 isvulnerable to a buffer overflow

CVE-2021-44538 is fixed in 7 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538, released December 14, 2021. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.

High
CVSS
9.8
Medium
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0200
80th percentile

The olm_session_describe function in Matrix libolm before 3.2.7 isvulnerable to a buffer overflow. The Olm session object represents acryptographic channel between two parties. Therefore, its state ispartially controllable by the remote party of the channel. Attackers canconstruct a crafted sequence of messages to manipulate the state of thereceiver's session in such a way that, for some buffer sizes, a bufferoverflow happens on a call to olm_session_describe. Furthermore, safebuffer sizes were undocumented. The overflow content is partiallycontrollable by the attacker and limited to ASCII spaces and digits. Theknown affected products are Element Web And SchildiChat Web.

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
olm · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) 3.2.8~dfsg-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
olm · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 3.2.8~dfsg-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
olm · Debian 14 3.2.8~dfsg-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
thunderbird · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) 1:91.4.1-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
thunderbird · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 1:91.4.1-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
thunderbird · Debian 14 1:91.4.1-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-44538 Dec 14, 2021
thunderbird · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 thunderbird 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 thunderbird 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 thunderbird 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022
thunderbird · Ubuntu 24.10 (oracular) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 thunderbird 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 16, 2026
thunderbird · Ubuntu 25.04 (plucky) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 thunderbird 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 16, 2026
thunderbird-gnome-support · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 thunderbird-gnome-support 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird-gnome-support · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 thunderbird-gnome-support 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird-gnome-support · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 thunderbird-gnome-support 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022
thunderbird-mozsymbols · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 thunderbird-mozsymbols 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird-mozsymbols · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 thunderbird-mozsymbols 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
thunderbird-mozsymbols · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 thunderbird-mozsymbols 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022
xul-ext-calendar-timezones · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 xul-ext-calendar-timezones 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-calendar-timezones · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 xul-ext-calendar-timezones 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-calendar-timezones · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 xul-ext-calendar-timezones 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022
xul-ext-gdata-provider · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 xul-ext-gdata-provider 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-gdata-provider · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 xul-ext-gdata-provider 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-gdata-provider · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 xul-ext-gdata-provider 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022
xul-ext-lightning · Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (bionic) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 xul-ext-lightning 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-lightning · Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 xul-ext-lightning 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 Feb 16, 2023
xul-ext-lightning · Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 xul-ext-lightning 1:91.5.0+build1-0ubuntu1 Jan 12, 2022

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