CVE-2026-40017

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-08-28 · updated 2026-09-03
Weakness: CWE-400

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.

Affected products

Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE: from 2.3.0 before 2.4.5 — fixed in 2.4.5
Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro: from 2.3.0 before 2.3.22.2; from 3.0.0 before 3.0.7; from 3.1.0 before 3.1.6 — fixed in 2.3.22.2, 3.0.7, 3.1.6

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot CE 2.4.5; Open-Xchange GmbH OX Dovecot Pro 2.3.22.2, 3.0.7, 3.1.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/csaf/2026/oxdc-adv-2026-0003.json

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