Resource exhaustion in Dovecot and OX Dovecot Pro - CVE-2026-42006

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Main Vulnerability Database Vulnerabilities #VU131869

Resource exhaustion in Dovecot and OX Dovecot Pro - CVE-2026-42006

Published: May 19, 2026


Vulnerability identifier: #VU131869
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 5.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-42006
CWE-ID: CWE-400
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability: No public exploit available

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a remote user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to uncontrolled resource consumption in imap-login when processing excessive bracing over IMAP. A remote user can send excessive bracing to cause a denial of service.

The issue remained reachable because an earlier fix blocked closing braces, but open braces could still bypass the limit.


Affected software

Dovecot
OX Dovecot Pro
Debian Linux
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 LTSS Extended
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12
Anolis OS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM 64 - Extended Update Support
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for ARM 64 - Extended Update Support
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM 64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for x86_64 - Extended Update Support
openEuler
Ubuntu
Fedora
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions
dovecot22-backend-mysql-debuginfo
dovecot22-backend-sqlite-debuginfo
dovecot22-debugsource
dovecot22-backend-pgsql-debuginfo
dovecot22-backend-mysql
dovecot22-backend-pgsql
dovecot22
dovecot22-devel
dovecot22-debuginfo
dovecot22-backend-sqlite
dovecot (Red Hat package)
dovecot (Ubuntu package)
dovecot-pigeonhole
dovecot-pgsql
dovecot-mysql
dovecot-devel
dovecot
dovecot (Debian package)
dovecot-debuginfo
dovecot-debugsource
dovecot-help

How to mitigate CVE-2026-42006

Install security update from vendor's website.

Dovecot - update to 2.4.4
OX Dovecot Pro - update to 3.1.5
dovecot22-backend-mysql-debuginfo - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-backend-sqlite-debuginfo - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-debugsource - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-backend-pgsql-debuginfo - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-backend-mysql - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-backend-pgsql - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22 - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-devel - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-debuginfo - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot22-backend-sqlite - update to 2.2.31-19.37.2
dovecot (Red Hat package) - addressed in versions 2.2.36-8.el7_9.2, 2.3.8-9.el8_4.2, 2.3.16-2.el8_6.2, 2.3.16-3.el8_8.2, 2.3.16-8.el9_2.3, 2.3.16-11.el9_4.3, 2.3.16-15.el9_6.2, 2.3.21-16.el10_0.2, 2.3.21-19.el10_2.1
dovecot (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 1:2.3.16+dfsg1-3ubuntu2.9, 1:2.3.21+dfsg1-2ubuntu6.5, 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-5ubuntu4.2, 1:2.4.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu2.1
dovecot-pigeonhole - update to 2.3.16-8.0.1
dovecot-pgsql - update to 2.3.16-8.0.1
dovecot-mysql - update to 2.3.16-8.0.1
dovecot-devel - update to 2.3.16-8.0.1
dovecot - update to 2.3.16-8.0.1
dovecot (Debian package) - addressed in versions 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u6, 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-6+deb13u6
dovecot-devel - update to 2.3.20-5
dovecot - update to 2.3.20-5
dovecot-debuginfo - update to 2.3.20-5
dovecot-debugsource - update to 2.3.20-5
dovecot-help - update to 2.3.20-5
dovecot - addressed in versions 2.4.4-1.fc43, 2.4.4-1.fc44

External References

Related Security Bulletins