NVD / CVE Program· CNA OX

CVE-2026-0394: When dovecot has been configured to use per-domain passwd files, and they are placed one path component above /etc, or slash has been added

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 21/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.43% (FIRST EPSS).
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
Fixed version: dovecot (Debian:12) 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2; dovecot (Debian:13) 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to dovecot (Debian:12) 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2; dovecot (Debian:13) 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

When dovecot has been configured to use per-domain passwd files, and they are placed one path component above /etc, or slash has been added to allowed characters, path traversal can happen if the domain component is directory partial. This allows inadvertently reading /etc/passwd (or some other path which ends with passwd). If this file contains passwords, it can be used to authenticate wrongly, or if this is userdb, it can unexpectly make system users appear valid users. Upgrade to fixed version, or use different authentication scheme that does not rely on paths. Alternatively you can also ensure that the per-domain passwd files are in some other location, such as /etc/dovecot/auth/%d. No publicly available exploits are known.

MediumCVSS 5.3 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

BDU:2026-12828

Published: Mar 27, 2026
Updated: Oct 26, 2026
EPSS: 0.4% · 37th percentile
CWE: CWE-22

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 21 / 40 · 5.3 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.4%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: —
CNA · OX: 5.3; NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
dovecot	dovecot	cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot
open-xchange	dovecot	cpe:2.3:a:open-xchange:dovecot

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 dovecotbefore 2.4.0
open-xchange dovecotbefore 3.1.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (OX). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro
- up to and including 2.3.0affected · semver

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Debian:12	dovecot	before 1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2	1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2
Debian:13	dovecot	before 1:2.4.1+dfsg1-1	1:2.4.1+dfsg1-1

Same product

dovecot: all records

Other 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 demonstrated
45Plan
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

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2025-59031Mar 27, 2026 · Dovecot has provided a script to use for attachment to text conversion.
17Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2025-59032Mar 27, 2026 · ManageSieve AUTHENTICATE command crashes when using literal as SASL initial response.
30Monitor
Later →CVE-2026-24031Mar 27, 2026 · Dovecot 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
debian:dovecot	1:2.3.19.1+dfsg1-2.1+deb12u2 · Debian:12	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.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

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 researchers

Finders, 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.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: low · data can be read
Integrity: none
Availability: none

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: Low
Integrity impact: None
Availability impact: None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

nvd-secondary

Root cause

A user-supplied file name is joined with the allowed directory, but the result is never checked to confirm it is still inside that directory.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-22 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1const file = path.join(ROOT, req.query.name);
2res.sendFile(file);

Fixed

1const file = path.resolve(ROOT, req.query.name);
2if (!file.startsWith(ROOT + path.sep)) {
3  return res.sendStatus(400);
4}
5res.sendFile(file);

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

—

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/csaf/2026/oxdc-adv-2026-0001.json

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records