REDHAT-BUG-2305910: Medium severity Dovecot dovecot vulnerability
Vulnerability Details: Very large headers can cause resource exhaustion when parsing message. The message-parser normally reads reasonably sized chunks of the message. However, when it feeds them to message-header-parser, it starts building up "fullvalue" buffer out of the smaller chunks. The fullvalue buffer has no size limit, so large headers can cause large memory usage. It doesn't matter whether it's a single long header line, or a single header split into multiple lines. This bug exists in all Dovecot versions.
Incoming mails typically have some size limits set by MTA, so even largest possible header size may still fit into Dovecot's vszlimit. So attackers probably can't DoS a victim user this way. A user could APPEND larger mails though, allowing them to DoS themselves (although maybe cause some memory issues for the backend in general).
Workaround: One can implement restrictions on headers on MTA component preceding Dovecot.
Fix: Install non-vulnerable version of Dovecot. Patch can be found at https://github.com/dovecot/core/compare/f020e13%5E...ce88c33.patch
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of REDHAT-BUG-2305910?
The severity of REDHAT-BUG-2305910 is classified as high due to potential resource exhaustion.
How do I fix REDHAT-BUG-2305910?
To fix REDHAT-BUG-2305910, you should apply the latest patches provided by Dovecot for affected versions.
What software is affected by REDHAT-BUG-2305910?
Dovecot Dovecot is the software affected by REDHAT-BUG-2305910.
What are the possible impacts of REDHAT-BUG-2305910?
The possible impacts of REDHAT-BUG-2305910 include denial of service due to resource exhaustion.
Is there a workaround for REDHAT-BUG-2305910?
Currently, there are no known specific workarounds for REDHAT-BUG-2305910 other than applying the patch.