CVE-2026-0394

When dovecot has been configured to use per-domain passwd files, and they are placed one path component above /etc, or slash has been added to allowed characters, path traversal can happen if the domain component is directory partial. This allows inadvertently reading /etc/passwd (or some other path which ends with passwd). If this file contains passwords, it can be used to authenticate wrongly, or if this is userdb, it can unexpectly make system users appear valid users. Upgrade to fixed version, or use different authentication scheme that does not rely on paths. Alternatively you can also ensure that the per-domain passwd files are in some other location, such as /etc/dovecot/auth/%d. No publicly available exploits are known.

Published: 2026-03-27 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-0394 is rated Low Risk (24.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-0394

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 2026-05-22 0.05% 0.03% -0.02%
2 2026-04-02 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
3 2026-03-27 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-0394

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-0394

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-0394

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-0394 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-2026-0394
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-0394
suse medium CVE-2026-0394 severity moderate: SUSE including 8 source package names (dovecot, dovecot24, …), 35 product×package rows across 21 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (21 product lines)): Known Not Affected 35. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-0394/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-0394 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dovecot), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needed 4, released 3, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-0394

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-0394

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dovecot dovecot < 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
open-xchange dovecot < 3.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:open-xchange:dovecot:*:*:*:*:pro:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-0394

cvelogic Threat Intelligence