# CVE-2017-5658: Information disclosure in Apache Pony Mail

> An attacker can access timestamp metadata from private mailing lists without authorization, potentially revealing communication patterns.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hx6p-r9cg-jvwv

## What is CVE-2017-5658?

CVE-2017-5658 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Pony Mail, published on 4 Oct 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The statistics generator in Apache Pony Mail 0.7 to 0.9 was found to be returning timestamp data without proper authorization checks. This could lead to derived information disclosure on private lists about the timing of specific email subjects or text bodies, though without disclosing the content itself. As this was primarily used as a caching feature for faster loading times, the caching was disabled by default to prevent this. Users using 0.9 should upgrade to 0.10 to address this issue.

Weakness: CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-5658?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Apache Pony Mail.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-5658?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-5658 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-5658 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5658 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Apache Pony Mail

- [CVE-2026-41873](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41873/): Pony Mail: Admin account takeover via request smuggling (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-4460](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4460/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-0218](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-0218/): Cross-site scripting in Apache Pony Mail (incubating) (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-5658 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-5658 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Pony Mail, published on 4 Oct 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-5658 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Apache Pony Mail. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5658/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5658/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-5658
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5658
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-5658

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5658/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.