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 dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-devel | Sep 12, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade dovecot | Aug 8, 2025 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot | Dec 20, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade 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-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-devel | Oct 16, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution existsUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-develUpgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-mysql | Sep 10, 2024 | Aug 15, 2024 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade dovecot-pgsql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonholeUpgrade dovecot-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-pigeonhole-debuginfoUpgrade dovecotUpgrade dovecot-mysqlUpgrade dovecot-mysql-debuginfoUpgrade dovecot-debugsourceUpgrade dovecot-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot-devel | Sep 17, 2024 | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade dovecot24-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot23-ftsUpgrade dovecot23-develUpgrade dovecot23-backend-mysqlUpgrade dovecot23-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot24-fts-solrUpgrade dovecot24-backend-pgsqlUpgrade dovecot23Upgrade dovecot24-ftsUpgrade dovecot23-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot23-fts-squatUpgrade dovecot24Upgrade dovecot24-backend-sqliteUpgrade dovecot24-develUpgrade dovecot23-fts-luceneUpgrade dovecot23-backend-pgsql | Dec 5, 2025 | Sep 12, 2024 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade dovecot-core | Sep 3, 2024 | Sep 2, 2024 |
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