CVE-2019-11500

Exp

In Dovecot before 2.2.36.4 and 2.3.x before 2.3.7.2 (and Pigeonhole before 0.5.7.2), protocol processing can fail for quoted strings. This occurs because '\0' characters are mishandled, and can lead to out-of-bounds writes and remote code execution.

Published: 2019-08-29 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-11500 is rated High Exploit Risk (93.9/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 62.32%, 99th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +24.38% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2019-11500

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-11500

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 37.94% 62.32% +24.38%
2 2026-06-14 38.35% 37.94% -0.41%
3 2026-05-28 — 38.35% —

Full EPSS history (34 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-11500

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-11500

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-11500

vendor priority summary link
alpine critical CVE-2019-11500: 1 source package rows (dovecot); 30 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 20. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-11500
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-11500 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dovecot), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-11500
gentoo normal CVE-2019-11500: 1 GLSA(s) (201908-29), 1 atom(s) (net-mail/dovecot); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2019-11500
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11500
suse high CVE-2019-11500 severity important: SUSE including 110 source package names (dovecot-2.2.36-3.el7_7.1, dovecot-2.2.36-5.el8_0.1, …), 199 product×package rows across 37 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Enterprise Storage 4, … (37 product lines)): Fixed 199. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11500/
ubuntu high CVE-2019-11500 high priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dovecot), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, disco, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-11500

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-11500

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dovecot dovecot < 2.2.36.4 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
dovecot dovecot >= 2.3.0, < 2.3.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
dovecot pigeonhole < 0.5.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:pigeonhole:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-11500

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00024.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00026.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/08/28/3 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2822
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2836
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2885
https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot-news/2019-August/000417.html Patch Vendor Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/08/msg00035.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3GYTZLLDNIFWT7D7JSB25ERJNMOR4CQ3/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KVHY3MU2OK2EWZJFGNDSAOMD42L7DFPX/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YSJVVVRAE3SITC2ZLGCPMFDN3WVYZBWF/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201908-29 Third Party Advisory
https://www.dovecot.org/security.html Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence