CVE-2024-23184: DoS (CVSS 5)

Description

Having a large number of address headers (From, To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) becomes excessively CPU intensive. With 100k header lines CPU usage is already 12 seconds, and in a production environment we observed 500k header lines taking 18 minutes to parse. Since this can be triggered by external actors sending emails to a victim, this is a security issue. An external attacker can send specially crafted messages that consume target system resources and cause outage. One can implement restrictions on address headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly available exploits are known.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

5.0

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-770 CWE-770

References

Other References

https://documentation.open-xchange.com/dovecot/security/advisories/csaf/2024/oxdc-adv-2024-0002.json http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2024/Aug/17 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/08/15/3 https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/09/msg00002.html

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-23184? +

Having a large number of address headers (From, To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) becomes excessively CPU intensive. With 100k header lines CPU usage is already 12 seconds, and in a production environment we observed 500k header lines taking 18 minutes to parse. Since this can be triggered by external actors sending emails to a victim, this is a security issue. An external attacker can send specially crafted messages that consume target system resources and cause outage. One can implement restrictions on address headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot. No publicly available exploits are known. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.0 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2024-23184? +

CVE-2024-23184 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.0 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2024-23184? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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CVE-2024-23184