Description
An attacker that can send mail to a user can craft a message header whose values are chosen to collide in an internal hash table, which makes the IMAP THREAD command consume CPU disproportionate to the size of the message. This is a separate issue from CVE-2026-40014 and is not addressed by that fix. Whenever a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox, this can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Monitor system for abnormal CPU usage, kill the offending process and remove the offending message from the affected mailbox. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.
Published: 2026-08-28
Score: 6.5 Medium
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Open-xchange
Open-xchange ox Dovecot Ce
Open-xchange ox Dovecot Pro
Vendors & Products Open-xchange
Open-xchange ox Dovecot Ce
Open-xchange ox Dovecot Pro

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title CPU Exhaustion via Crafted Email Header Collision Triggering IMAP THREAD Denial of Service dovecot: Dovecot: Denial of Service via crafted IMAP message headers
Weaknesses CWE-770
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Moderate


Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Fri, 28 Aug 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title CPU Exhaustion via Crafted Email Header Collision Triggering IMAP THREAD Denial of Service

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description An attacker that can send mail to a user can craft a message header whose values are chosen to collide in an internal hash table, which makes the IMAP THREAD command consume CPU disproportionate to the size of the message. This is a separate issue from CVE-2026-40014 and is not addressed by that fix. Whenever a mail client issues a THREAD command on the affected mailbox, this can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Monitor system for abnormal CPU usage, kill the offending process and remove the offending message from the affected mailbox. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.
Weaknesses CWE-400
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}


Subscriptions

Open-xchange Ox Dovecot Ce Ox Dovecot Pro
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: OX

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-28T15:02:36.570Z

Reserved: 2026-04-08T09:59:59.342Z

Link: CVE-2026-40017

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-08-28T15:01:12.943Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-08-28T12:16:28.480

Modified: 2026-08-28T16:17:56.903

Link: CVE-2026-40017

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2026-08-28T10:12:19Z

Links: CVE-2026-40017 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-09-01T15:15:12Z

Weaknesses