CVE-2021-40529

What it is

The ElGamal implementation in Botan through 2.18.1, as used in Thunderbird and other products, allows plaintext recovery because, during interaction between two cryptographic libraries, a certain dangerous combination of the prime defined by the receiver's public key, the generator defined by the receiver's public key, and the sender's ephemeral exponents can lead to a cross-configuration attack against OpenPGP.

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited over the network without logging in. High risk of data exposure.

Exploit odds

1.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2021-09-06 19:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-06-17 04:07 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 1.5% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 5.9 MEDIUM (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2021-09-06 19:15 UTC

Last modified

2026-06-17 04:07 UTC

Exploit probability

1.5% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-327 · Broken cryptographic algorithm

Record status

Modified

Affected

• Botan Project Botan ≤ 2.18.1
• Fedoraproject Fedora 34
• Fedoraproject Fedora 35
• Mozilla Thunderbird < 91.12.0

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 5.9

Attack vector

Network

Complexity

High

Privileges needed

None

User interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

None

Availability

None

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2021-40529.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2021-40529. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

Copy as ticket · More options · Status badge