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.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.5
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alma_linux | — | Upgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade 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-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-pgsql | Dec 20, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-devel | 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-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-devel | Oct 16, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Redhat_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoNo solution existsUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-debuginfo | Sep 10, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole | Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade dovecot23-ftsUpgrade dovecot23-develUpgrade dovecot23-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot24-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot23-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot24-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot23-backend-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot24Upgrade dovecot24-ftsUpgrade dovecot23-fts-squatUpgrade dovecot23Upgrade dovecot24-backend-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot23-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot24-develUpgrade dovecot24-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot23-fts-lucene | Dec 5, 2025 | Sep 12, 2024 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade dovecot-core | Sep 3, 2024 | Sep 2, 2024 |
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