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  <updated>2026-09-29T21:12:09.498317+00:00</updated>
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  <entry>
    <id>https://vulnerability.circl.lu/vuln/ghsa-vcgp-9326-pqcp</id>
    <title>GHSA-vcgp-9326-pqcp — net-imap vulnerable to STARTTLS stripping via invalid response timing</title>
    <updated>2026-09-29T21:12:10.214385+00:00</updated>
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><strong>Affected:</strong> RubyGems: net-imap</p>
<p>### Summary</p>
<p>A man-in-the-middle attacker can cause `Net::IMAP#starttls` to return "successfully", without starting TLS.</p>
<p>### Details</p>
<p>When using `Net::IMAP#starttls` to upgrade a plaintext connection to use TLS, a man-in-the-middle attacker can inject a tagged `OK` response with an easily predictable tag.  By sending the response before the client finishes sending the command, the command completes "successfully" before the response handler is registered.  This allows `#starttls` to return without error, but the response handler is never invoked, the TLS connection is never established, and the socket remains unencrypted.</p>
<p>This allows man-in-the-middle attackers to perform a STARTTLS stripping attack, unless the client code explicitly checks `Net::IMAP#tls_verified?`.</p>
<p>### Impact</p>
<p>TLS bypass, leading to cleartext transmission of sensitive information.</p>
<p>### Mitigation</p>
<p>* Upgrade to a patched version of net-imap that raises an exception whenever `#starttls` does not establish TLS.
* Connect to an implicit TLS port, rather than use `STARTTLS` with a cleartext port.
  This is strongly recommended anyway:
  * [RFC 8314](https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8314): Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access
  * [NO STARTTLS](https://nostarttls.secvuln.info/): Why TLS is better without STARTTLS, A Security Analysis of STARTTLS in the Email Context
* Explicitly verify `Net::IMAP#tls_verified?` is `true`, before using the connec…</p></div>
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    <link href="https://vulnerability.circl.lu/vuln/ghsa-vcgp-9326-pqcp"/>
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