CVE-2026-52687

dovecot: dovecot: Denial of Service via IMAP compression memory exhaustion

Published Aug 28, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 6.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
An attacker that has valid credentials can select a compression algorithm for the IMAP connection whose decompression state requires a large amount of memory, and open several such connections. The memory limit of the process is reached with only a few connections, terminating the process and all connections it handles, which can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Disable IMAP compression. Alternatively limit the number of connections handled by a single imap-login process, though this has a performance impact. Update to non-vulnerable version. No publicly available exploits are known.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4873-1 dovecot security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6526-1 dovecot security update
History
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
Type Values Removed Values Added
Title IMAP Connection Compression Memory Exhaustion Leading to Denial of Service dovecot: dovecot: Denial of Service via IMAP compression memory exhaustion
Weaknesses CWE-770
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Moderate

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

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

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title IMAP Connection Compression Memory Exhaustion Leading to Denial of Service
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description An attacker that has valid credentials can select a compression algorithm for the IMAP connection whose decompression state requires a large amount of memory, and open several such connections. The memory limit of the process is reached with only a few connections, terminating the process and all connections it handles, which can cause degradation or denial of service for IMAP. Disable IMAP compression. Alternatively limit the number of connections handled by a single imap-login process, though this has a performance impact. 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
OX
Published
Updated
Aug 28, 2026, 3:53 PM
Reserved
Jun 8, 2026, 8:05 AM
Status
Deferred
Published
Aug 28, 2026, 12:16 PM
Modified
Sep 3, 2026, 6:13 PM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Aug 28, 2026, 10:12 AM