CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-40014

MediumCVSS 6.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.27%

19th percentile - higher than 19% of all known CVEs

Summary

An attacker can send a user a message with a specially crafted header that causes the IMAP THREAD command to consume CPU disproportionate to the message size. When a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox, this can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Monitor system for abnormal CPU usage, kill the offending process and remove the offending message from the affected mailbox. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.

Risk Assessment

The risk is the possibility of overloading the IMAP server, which can lead to unavailability of mail services for users. The attack does not require special privileges, only the ability to send a message to a user.

Recommendation

It is recommended to monitor CPU usage on the IMAP server and react to anomalies. Also update the software to a version that does not contain this vulnerability.

Other vulnerabilities in Dovecot

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Original NVD description (English source)

An attacker that can send mail to a user can craft a message header that makes the IMAP THREAD command consume CPU disproportionate to the size of the message. When a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox, this can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Monitor system for abnormal CPU usage, kill the offending process and remove the offending message from the affected mailbox. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS