CVE-2026-42006

An attacker can cause uncontrolled memory usage with excessive bracing over IMAP. The fix in CVE-2026-27857 was incomplete, only blocking one way of doing this, so there was still another way left open. In particular, the fix was for closing braces, but you could still use open braces to bypass the limit. Using excessive bracing, attacker can cause memory usage up to configured memory limit. Install fixed version, or configure vsz_limit for imap process to low value. No publicly available exploits are known.

Published: 2026-05-12 Last update: 2026-05-18 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42006 is rated Low Risk (17.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2026-42006

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 2026-05-13 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42006

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L 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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 2.8 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42006

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42006

GHSA-h665-fh45-xq6r · Severity: medium — An attacker can cause uncontrolled memory usage with excessive bracing over IMAP. The fix in CVE...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-42006

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-42006 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dovecot), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42006
suse high CVE-2026-42006 severity important: SUSE including 1 source package names (dovecot), 19 product×package rows across 19 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (19 product lines)): Known Not Affected 19. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42006/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-42006 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dovecot), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 9. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-42006

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42006

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dovecot dovecot < 2.4.4 cpe:2.3:a:dovecot:dovecot:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
open-xchange dovecot < 3.1.5 cpe:2.3:a:open-xchange:dovecot:*:*:*:*:pro:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-42006

cvelogic Threat Intelligence