CVE-2026-7666: Django fails to prevent reuse of a partially-initialized connection after a failed `STARTTLS` handshake

An issue was discovered in Django 6.0 before 6.0.6 and 5.2 before 5.2.15.

django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend in Django fails to prevent reuse of a partially-initialized connection after a failed STARTTLS handshake when fail_silently=True, which allows on-path network attackers to read email content via cleartext interception.

Earlier, unsupported Django series (such as 5.0.x, 4.1.x, and 3.2.x) were not evaluated and may also be affected. Django would like to thank Kasper Dupont for reporting this issue.