Very large headers can cause resource exhaustion when parsing message. The message-parser normally reads reasonably sized chunks of the message. However, when it feeds them to message-header-parser, it starts building up "full_value" buffer out of the smaller chunks. The full_value buffer has no size limit, so large headers can cause large memory usage. It doesn't matter whether it's a single long header line, or a single header split into multiple lines. This bug exists in all Dovecot versions. Incoming mails typically have some size limits set by MTA, so even largest possible header size may still fit into Dovecot's vsz_limit. So attackers probably can't DoS a victim user this way. A user could APPEND larger mails though, allowing them to DoS themselves (although maybe cause some memory issues for the backend in general). One can implement restrictions on headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly available exploits are known.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alma_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pgsql | Sep 12, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade dovecot | Aug 8, 2025 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysql | Dec 20, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfo | Feb 17, 2025 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade dovecot | Aug 22, 2024 | Aug 22, 2024 |
| Freebsd | — | Upgrade dovecot | Dec 10, 2025 | Aug 16, 2024 |
| Oracle_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-mysql | Oct 16, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Redhat_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoNo solution existsUpgrade dovecot | Sep 10, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfo | Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade dovecot23-ftsUpgrade dovecot23-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot24-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot23-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot23-develUpgrade dovecot24-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot24-ftsUpgrade dovecot24Upgrade dovecot24-backend-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot24-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot23-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot24-develUpgrade dovecot23Upgrade dovecot23-fts-squatUpgrade dovecot23-backend-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot23-fts-lucene | Dec 5, 2025 | Sep 12, 2024 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade dovecot-core | Sep 3, 2024 | Sep 2, 2024 |
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