Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling Affecting dovecot package, versions [2.3.0,2.4.5)
Threat Intelligence
The probability is the direct output of the EPSS model, and conveys an overall sense of the threat of exploitation in the wild. The percentile measures the EPSS probability relative to all known EPSS scores. Note: This data is updated daily, relying on the latest available EPSS model version. Check out the EPSS documentation for more details.
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- published24 Sept 2026
- disclosed28 Aug 2026
- creditUnknown
Introduced: 28 Aug 2026
CVE-2026-40017 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade dovecot to version 2.4.5 or higher.
Overview
Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling through the IMAP THREAD process. An attacker can cause excessive CPU consumption by sending a specially crafted email message with headers designed to create hash table collisions, resulting in service degradation or interruption when a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox.
Workaround
This vulnerability can be mitigated by identifying and removing the specially crafted IMAP message from the affected user's mailbox. If a process is consuming excessive CPU resources, terminating the process will restore service, though this will temporarily interrupt service for affected users.