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.
Published: 2026-08-28
Score: 6.5 Medium
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Weaknesses CWE-400
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}


Subscriptions

No data.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: OX

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-28T10:30:43.636Z

Reserved: 2026-04-08T09:59:59.342Z

Link: CVE-2026-40017

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-08-28T12:16:28.480

Modified: 2026-08-28T12:16:28.480

Link: CVE-2026-40017

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses