Description
Nodemailer versions >= 6.9.16 and < 9.1.0 mis-parse RFC 5322 comments in email addresses: in lib/addressparser, a comment closed immediately before a non-break character causes the tokenizer to concatenate the atoms surrounding the comment instead of treating the comment as folding whitespace that terminates the domain. A recipient address such as user@good-corp.com(x)evil.com is therefore read by Nodemailer as the single domain good-corp.comevil.com (registrable domain comevil.com, which an attacker can register) and used for both the SMTP envelope (RCPT TO) and the emitted To:/From: headers, while a conformant RFC 5322 parser terminates the domain at the comment and reads good-corp.com. An application that validates the recipient domain with a strict RFC 5322 parser (without inspecting parse defects) or a naive prefix/substring allow-list and then hands the raw address to Nodemailer can be induced to deliver mail to a domain the attacker controls. Fixed in 9.1.0.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| nodemailer | nodemailer | 6.9.16 – < 9.1.0 | 9.1.0 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | node-nodemailer | 10.0.0+~8.0.1-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | node-nodemailer | No fix yet | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| npm | nodemailer | >= 6.9.16, < 9.1.0 | 9.1.0 | GHSA-cc9r-2j5m-2m83 |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-3621 IBM App Connect Enterprise: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 9, 2026
References
- GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-cc9r-2j5m-2m83) vendor-advisory
- Patch Commit patch
- VulnCheck Advisory: Nodemailer before 9.1.0 Email Domain Validation Bypass via RFC 5322 Comment third-party-advisory