# CVE-2020-6795: Null dereference in Thunderbird

> A null pointer dereference in Thunderbird's S/MIME processing causes a crash when handling multiple signatures, resulting in denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-6795, GHSA-4whv-ch98-q6fp, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-6795

## What is CVE-2020-6795?

CVE-2020-6795 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mozilla Thunderbird, published on 2 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

When processing a message that contains multiple S/MIME signatures, a bug in the MIME processing code caused a null pointer dereference, leading to an unexploitable crash. This vulnerability affects Thunderbird < 68.5.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-6795?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mozilla Thunderbird.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-6795?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-6795 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-6795 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Mozilla Thunderbird

- [CVE-2026-92238](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-92238/): Ambiguous parsing of mail headers (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-84637](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-84637/): Calendar invitation attachments could launch local executables (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-43529](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-43529/): Memory corruption in Thunderbird (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-11703](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11703/): Memory corruption in Thunderbird (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-11704](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11704/): Memory corruption in Thunderbird (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-6795 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-6795 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mozilla Thunderbird, published on 2 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-6795 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mozilla Thunderbird. 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-2020-6795/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-6795/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-6795
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-6795
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-6795

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-6795/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.