From eb9ae0aa0e068fc83f16b190148492509578e78f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: esadomer <54475303+esadomer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:52:27 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] gh-159350: Handle empty lists in strict email.utils.parseaddr

---
 Lib/email/utils.py                                           | 2 ++
 Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py                            | 5 +++++
 .../Library/2026-10-13-20-45-00.gh-issue-159350.pArSad.rst   | 2 ++
 3 files changed, 9 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-13-20-45-00.gh-issue-159350.pArSad.rst

diff --git a/Lib/email/utils.py b/Lib/email/utils.py
index c8a6d0af37532c..bd8a7445b22adb 100644
--- a/Lib/email/utils.py
+++ b/Lib/email/utils.py
@@ -349,6 +349,8 @@ def parseaddr(addr, *, strict=True):
         return addrs[0]
 
     if isinstance(addr, list):
+        if not addr:
+            return ('', '')
         addr = addr[0]
 
     if not isinstance(addr, str):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py b/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py
index e40c82bba9af42..b9329420142072 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_email/test_email.py
@@ -3199,6 +3199,11 @@ def test_parseaddr_empty(self):
         self.assertEqual(utils.parseaddr('<>'), ('', ''))
         self.assertEqual(utils.formataddr(utils.parseaddr('<>')), '')
 
+    def test_parseaddr_empty_list(self):
+        for strict in (True, False):
+            with self.subTest(strict=strict):
+                self.assertEqual(utils.parseaddr([], strict=strict), ('', ''))
+
     def test_parseaddr_multiple_domains(self):
         self.assertEqual(
             utils.parseaddr('a@b@c'),
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-13-20-45-00.gh-issue-159350.pArSad.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-13-20-45-00.gh-issue-159350.pArSad.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..d6270e1dec687d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-10-13-20-45-00.gh-issue-159350.pArSad.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix :func:`email.utils.parseaddr` raising :exc:`IndexError` for an empty
+list in strict mode. It now returns ``('', '')``, as in non-strict mode.