CVE-2026-39971

Serendipity: Host Header Injection leads to SMTP header injection via unvalidated HTTP_HOST

HIGH
7.2
CVSS Score
Published: April 14, 2026 at 11:35 PM UTC
Updated: October 26, 2026 at 10:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorSerendipity

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Severity
HIGH7.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog engine. In versions 2.6-beta2 and below, the email sending functionality in include/functions.inc.php inserts $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] directly into the Message-ID SMTP header without validation, and the existing sanitization function serendipity_isResponseClean() is not called on HTTP_HOST before embedding it. An attacker who can control the Host header during an email-triggering action such as comment notifications or subscription emails can inject arbitrary SMTP headers into outgoing emails. This enables identity spoofing, reply hijacking via manipulated Message-ID threading, and email reputation abuse through the attacker's domain being embedded in legitimate mail headers. This issue has been fixed in version 2.6.0.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Affected range stops below 2.6.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

x_refsource_CONFIRMExploitMitigationVendor Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/s9y/Serendipity/security/advisories/GHSA-458g-q4fh-mj6r
x_refsource_MISCPatch
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/s9y/Serendipity/releases/tag/2.6.0

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.2HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
LOW
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-113

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