A specially crafted email delivered over SMTP and passed on to Dovecot by MTA can trigger an out of bounds read resulting in potential sensi
A specially crafted email delivered over SMTP and passed on to Dovecot by MTA can trigger an out of bounds read resulting in potential sensitive information disclosure and denial of service. In order to trigger this vulnerability, an attacker needs to send a specially crafted email message to the server.
- Published
- Mar 2, 2018
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 16.7% · 97th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-125
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Report tools
Action score
33
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 28 / 40 · 7.1 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 5 / 30 · 16.7%
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 7.1
- CNA · talos
- 5.9
- 1.2 point gap
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| dovecot | dovecot | cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot |
| debian | debian linux | cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux |
| ubuntu | ubuntu | cpe:2.3:o:ubuntu:ubuntu |
Using dovecot? Add it to your stack and be the first to know about CVEs like this one. (Email server)
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- dovecot dovecot2.2.33.2
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (talos). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
The Dovecot Project Dovecot
- 2.2.33.2affected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.10 | dovecot | before 2.3.1-r0 | 2.3.1-r0 |
| Alpine:v3.7 | dovecot | before 2.2.34-r0 | 2.2.34-r0 |
| Debian:12 | dovecot | before 1:2.2.34-1 | 1:2.2.34-1 |
| Debian:7 | dovecot | before 1:2.1.7-7+deb7u2 | 1:2.1.7-7+deb7u2 |
| Debian:8 | dovecot | before 1:2.2.13-12~deb8u4 | 1:2.2.13-12~deb8u4 |
| Debian:9 | dovecot | before 1:2.2.27-3+deb9u2 | 1:2.2.27-3+deb9u2 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | dovecot23 | before 2.3.16-1.6 | 2.3.16-1.6 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | dovecot24 | before 2.4.0-1.1 | 2.4.0-1.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3 | dovecot22 | before 2.2.31-19.8.1 | 2.2.31-19.8.1 |
Same product
dovecot: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2019-11500In Dovecot before 2.2.36.4 and 2.3.x before 2.3.7.2 (and Pigeonhole before 0.5.7.2), protocol processing can fail for quoted strings.58Plan
- CVE-2020-7046lib-smtp in submission-login and lmtp in Dovecot 2.3.9 before 2.3.9.3 mishandles truncated UTF-8 data in command parameters, as demonstrated45Plan
- CVE-2016-8652The auth component in Dovecot before 2.2.27, when auth-policy is configured, allows a remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) 37Monitor
- CVE-2026-27851When safe filter is used with variable expansion, all following pipelines on the same string are incorrectly interpreted as safe too, enabli36Monitor
- CVE-2022-30550An issue was discovered in the auth component in Dovecot 2.2 and 2.3 before 2.3.20.36Monitor
- CVE-2026-24031Dovecot SQL based authentication can be bypassed when auth_username_chars is cleared by admin.32Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alpine:dovecot | 2.3.1-r0 · Alpine:v3.10 | Package registry (OSV) |
| Debian:dovecot | 1:2.2.34-1 · Debian:12 | Package registry (OSV) |
| openSUSE:dovecot23 | 2.3.16-1.6 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
| openSUSE:dovecot24 | 2.4.0-1.1 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
| SUSE:dovecot22 | 2.2.31-19.8.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3 | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- low · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- Low
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-125 · Out-of-bounds ReadCVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
ATT&CK techniques
—
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- www.securityfocus.com/bid/103201
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/03/msg00036.html
- talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2017-0510
- usn.ubuntu.com/3587-1/
- usn.ubuntu.com/3587-2/
- www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4130
- www.dovecot.org/list/dovecot-news/2018-February/000370.html
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.